CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Cochell, Garrido Downplay ‘The Game’

Larry Cochell sighed. Apparently, he had been asked the question several times in the past few days.

What do you think about finally facing Augie Garrido?

Garrido, who left as Cal State Fullerton’s baseball coach three years ago to accept a similar position at Illinois, is back in town, bringing his team to Titan Field tonight for a 7 p.m. game against Fullerton.

Cochell says tonight’s game is not the Great Showdown.

“Every game is important,” Cochell said. “I think it’s going to be nice flavor for the fans. I mean, it’s a nice human-interest story, him coming back after coaching for 14 years (actually 15).

“I think it will be a big game, but let’s keep it in perspective. One of the biggest games of the season? I wouldn’t say that.”

He added quickly: “I don’t want to play it down, either.”

Replacing a well-liked coach is never easy, especially one that produced two College World Series championship teams. But Cochell, who in 1988 was named national coach of the year by Collegiate Baseball for guiding Fullerton to third place in the College World Series in his first season at Fullerton, is now in the final season of having players recruited by Garrido on his team.

Pitchers Chris Robinson, Rick Faulks and Huck Flener and infielder Mark Shimamoto were recruited by Garrido but didn’t play for him.

Others--including Brian Roberts, a former Loara High standout, and Kevin O’Conner (Mater Dei)--followed Garrido to Illinois. So, to one degree or another, there is a certain level of emotional intensity for tonight’s game.

Garrido said Wednesday that he has hardly considered that aspect.

“I know it’s out there,” said Garrido, who led Illinois to the Big Ten title last year. “But we’ve been working on day-to-day operations. That’s consumed most of my time and energy. Still, my guess is all this will hit me once I get out there.

“We wanted to get it on the schedule because we thought it would be a fun game and an exciting game for people. We won’t know though until we see how many people show up.”

For the record: Garrido’s uniform No. 16 was retired three years ago in a farewell ceremony at Fullerton, Athletic Director Ed Carroll said. Wednesday’s editions of The Times reported that Carroll had decided against retiring Garrido’s jersey number during tonight’s game.

Garrido’s jersey is now mounted on a plaque in the trophy case in the school’s gymnasium, and No. 16 is also painted on the left-centerfield fence at Titan Field, along with former Fullerton players Bob Caffrey (14) and Tim Wallach (29).

Fullerton (13-9) is led by junior second baseman Mate Borgogno (.407 batting average, 27 runs batted in, three home runs), senior left fielder Rich Gonzales (.369), sophomore right-hander James Popoff (3-2, 2.49 earned-run average) and junior left-hander Flener (4-1, 2.87).

Illinois (12-8), which is on a weeklong trip, is led by former Esperanza standout Jason Moler (.364, 15 RBIs, two home runs). Moler, a sophomore who is expected to be the starting pitcher tonight, is 2-1 with a 4.41 ERA.

Roberts, a junior outfielder/first baseman from Loara, has a 13-game hitting streak and is batting .343 with 22 RBIs.

O’Conner, a junior outfielder, is in rehabilitation with a partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

The 10th PONY softball tournament at Fullerton started Wednesday with 16 teams, seven of which are ranked in the NCAA top 20.

Top-ranked Fullerton, which defeated Rutgers, 8-0, Wednesday, has won the tournament five times, the last time in 1987.

Other top 20 teams competing include third-ranked Arizona, No. 4 Fresno State, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Cal Poly Pomona, No. 12 Texas A&M; and No. 13 Oregon.

Several former Orange County standouts are in the tournament, including three from Fresno State: Terry Carpenter and Martha Noffsinger from Edison High and Gina LoPiccolo from Sunny Hills.

Carpenter, a sophomore pitcher, is 7-4 with an 0.52 ERA. Noffsinger, a senior shortstop, is batting .394 and leads the Bulldogs in hits (39) and triples (four). LoPiccolo, a junior third baseman, is batting .301 and leads the team with 26 RBIs.

PONY tales: Like many athletes in the PONY tournament, Fullerton infielder Diana Forman will be watched by a few friends and relatives in the stands. But one such fan will get an even closer view of Forman in action.

Forman’s fraternal twin, Donna, is the starting first baseman for Oklahoma State, which plays Fullerton at 7 tonight.

The Formans, from Chico, Calif., went to UCLA as freshmen in 1988, then transferred to Butte College in Oroville, Calif.

Last year, they decided to go their separate ways. Now they’ll be playing against each other for the first time in their collegiate career.

Two new assistant coaches are expected to join football Coach Gene Murphy’s staff by the time spring practice opens Tuesday.

Mike Foster, defensive coordinator at Central Missouri State, has resigned and is expected to move to Fullerton, a Central Missouri State spokeswoman said.

Foster, 33, will coach the secondary at Fullerton, replacing Ed Donatell, who resigned to become an assistant with the New York Jets. Foster joined the staff at Central Missouri State in 1986 after five seasons as an assistant at Coffeyville (Kan.) Junior College.

Hue Jackson, who has been an assistant at the University of the Pacific the past two years, has resigned his position and is expected to be named to coach the running backs at Fullerton, a spokesman at Pacific said. Jackson, 24, was the Tigers’ quarterback in 1985 and ’86. He will replace Preston Dennard, the former Ram receiver who left the Fullerton after one year, in part because of athletic department budget cuts.

Titan Notes

The Titan Road Classic, with 2K, 5K and 10K runs, is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. on April 8. Contact Fullerton track Coach John Elders at 773-3490 for more information. . . . Heath Sims, a former Woodbridge High wrestling standout who redshirted his freshman season at Fullerton this year, placed sixth in the Peer Gynt Cup of Greco-Roman wrestling at Norway, Feb. 25. Sims, who wrestled at 149 1/2 pounds, competed for the Orange County-based California Jets club.