Cal State Fullerton Makes a Pitch to Silence the Critics : College baseball: Some observers view the school’s failure to be selected as one of the top 25 teams in the nation as a sign of a declining program.

Cal State Fullerton’s baseball players hear the talk.

“I think everybody thinks Fullerton is going down,” said Mate Borgogno, the Titans’ second baseman. “Just one bad year and everyone thinks the program is going down. I feel we’re going to change it around.”

The players scan the preseason polls, down the list and back up. Down again, more slowly.

But Fullerton isn’t there, not in Baseball America, not in The Sporting News, not in Sport magazine. No poll named the Titans among its top 25 teams.

Only one chose them at all, Collegiate Baseball, which ranked them 31st.

The Titans have won two national championships, both under Augie Garrido, who led them to titles in 1979 and 1984 before leaving to become coach at Illinois in 1987.

The Titans have been to the College World Series five times since 1975, four times under Garrido, and once under Larry Cochell, who was named national coach of the year by Collegiate Baseball for guiding Fullerton to third place in 1987, his first season.

And the Titans have had a place in the top 25 as regularly as the sun shines on Titan Field. Fullerton officials can’t recall a time since 1975 that the team wasn’t ranked in the preseason. But now the Titans, who struggled to a 30-27 record last season, their worst in 15 years, are not ranked.

At other times, that might pass for an off-year, a blip on the landscape of the program. But with Cochell entering his third season at Fullerton and Garrido moving into his own at Illinois, some believe it might be a landmark.

If Garrido were still coach, more people might allow last season to pass.

“We didn’t have a great year,” pitcher Huck Flener said. “A lot of years Augie didn’t go to the World Series.”

The Titans struggled last year after losing pitcher Mark Beck to shoulder surgery before the season and playing without catcher Brent Mayne, who was kept out for weeks by injury and illness. They endured a defense so unsteady that it committed 125 errors.

Instead, Cochell, 49, faces a period of judgment. There were those who claimed that the team that went to the World Series two years ago was really Augie’s team, a team Garrido had built. Last year’s team was a mixture of old and new players. This team, though, is Cochell’s team. Only four players--pitchers Flener, Rich Faulks and Matt Watson and infielder Mark Shimamoto--were at Fullerton when Garrido was coach.

The challenge will come quickly. After opening the season against Cal Poly Pomona at 1 p.m. today at Titan Field, Fullerton plays three-game series against traditional powers Arizona and Stanford on the road.

“It will be a good thing,” Cochell said. “We’ll find out exactly where we are.”

As if this season did not have enough of a Larry-versus-Augie air to it already, the two will meet head-to-head March 22, when Illinois plays Fullerton at Titan Field for the first time since Garrido left.

“Just another game,” Cochell said.

Not so for Flener, the left-handed pitcher who had a 9-1 record for Fullerton last season.

“To those of us who were recruited by Augie and then he left, it will be more than just a game,” Flener said.

It will be a game that will provide one more chance for comparison of two coaches who are essentially incomparable. No one has put it better than Keith Kaub, the power-hitting first baseman who played under both.

“Augie’s like lobster,” Kaub said in 1988. “Cochell is like a home-cooked meal.”

That doesn’t stop the comparisons. Borgogno hears them again and again.

“They say, ‘You know, he’s doing a good job. Look at Illinois,’ ” Borgogno said. “But that’s something that doesn’t concern me, Cochell or the team. (Garrido) is doing a good job and he’s a great coach. But that’s something that’s in the past, at least with Fullerton.”

The season ahead is what the Titans are concerned with, not the polls, Cochell said.

“We don’t deserve to be up there right now,” he said. “I think we’re going to be pretty good. We have a chance to be outstanding.”

With an improved defense and a deep pitching staff, Cochell said the Titans are potentially a top 10 team.

The pitching staff, coached by former major league player Vern Ruhle, will be led by Flener and top reliever Chris Robinson.

“We don’t have a guy who can dominate a game like Beck, but we have eight or more who can do the job for us,” Cochell said.

Borgogno is the only player who returns in the infield, which will be strengthened with the addition of community college transfer Steve Sisco at first, USC transfer Kevin Farlow at shortstop and freshman Phil Nevin at third. Matt Hattabaugh, another community college transfer, will be the starting catcher.

“I won’t be surprised if I can look back after this season and say this is one of the best defensive infields I’ve had in 24 years,” Cochell said.

Besides Borgogno, outfielder Rich Gonzales is the only returning postion player. Domingo Mota, a community college transfer who is the son of Manny Mota, will likely play center field. Right field is still up for grabs.

“I think our question mark is how we’re going to score runs,” Cochell said.

The Titans won’t have the type of power they had last season in Dave Staton, who hit 18 home runs. They do, however, have Borgogno, who batted .359 with no homers. And Sisco, Nevin and Hattabaugh could provide power.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” Cochell said. “It doesn’t matter what I say or what anybody says. At the end of the year, people can evaluate.”