CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Titan Baseball Finds Its Rhythm After Missing the Beat Early On

Through all the blown leads, the one-run losses, the inconsistent pitching and the sporadic hitting, Cal State Fullerton baseball Coach Larry Cochell never lost faith.

He lost plenty of games, mind you, but the thought of his team playing to its potential, of excelling in all phases of the game for a series or at least one night, kept Cochell going through hard times.

Last weekend, the good times finally rolled for Cochell and his Titans. Fullerton swept a three-game series from Fresno State, defeating the Bulldogs, 6-3, 5-2, and 15-4, to improve to 21-16 and move into first place in the Big West Conference.

The Titans, who had lingered around the .500 mark all season, got outstanding pitching and timely hitting. They played solid defense. They hit for power and advanced runners with sacrifice bunts. Really, they couldn’t have played much better.

“Maybe we surprised some other people, but I wasn’t surprised,” Cochell said. “I just kept waiting for this to happen, waiting for us to get it together. Last weekend, we finally played complete games.”

Pitchers dominated the first two games of the series. Huck Flener pitched 5 1/3 innings of no-hit ball Thursday night, and James Popoff pitched a complete-game, four-hitter with 10 strikeouts Friday night. Saturday, the Titans had a season-high 18 hits, including home runs by Phil Nevin, Rich Gonzales, Domingo Mota and Kevin Farlow.

The sweep did wonders for the confidence of a team that had lost seven one-run games, but Cochell isn’t worried about his players being overconfident for this weekend’s three-game series against Nevada Las Vegas.

“When you’re struggling and all of a sudden you get a taste of success, there isn’t any room for complacency,” Cochell said. “UNLV has two great pitchers, so they’ll be a big test for us. We’ll find out if last weekend was a fluke or if we’re for real.”

In defense: Until last weekend, when Fullerton got its entire act together, the one thing Cochell could always count on was his defense. The Titans are ranked 12th in the nation with a .970 fielding percentage, a statistic that may not fully reflect how good their position players are.

Of Fullerton’s 44 errors, 11 have been made by pitchers. Second baseman Mate Borgogno has only three errors in 202 chances for a .985 fielding percentage. Shortstop Kevin Farlow has six errors in 181 chances for a .967 mark.

First baseman Steve Sisco has three errors in 357 chances, 343 of them putouts, for a .992 fielding percentage. Nevin, the third baseman, has made 13 errors but only three in the past 21 games.

“That’s a pretty good infield,” Cochell said. “They’ve kept us in a lot of games.”

Power surge: Nevin, who began the season as the Titans’ No. 3 hitter but moved into the leadoff spot about three weeks ago, finally is beginning to hit like a No. 3 hitter.

Nevin, a freshman third baseman, has five home runs, including two against Fresno State, and 10 RBIs in the past 12 games. Cochell, though, has no intentions of moving Nevin back into the No. 3 spot.

Nevin, who is hitting .333, leads the team in walks (26) and has eight stolen bases in 10 attempts. He has a team-high .440 on-base percentage.

“He’s like a Bobby Bonds type,” Cochell said. “He can hit a home run, steal a base or draw a walk.”

Hoop scoop: Cedric Ceballos, who recently completed his senior basketball season for the Titans, made the all-tournament team at last weekend’s Orlando All-Star Series, one of three postseason college all-star events played for the benefit of professional scouts.

Playing for the East team, Ceballos scored 66 points in three games, making 27 of 52 shots (52%) and pulling down 27 rebounds. He averaged 27 minutes a game and had a high-game of 30. He also won the event’s slam-dunk competition.

Ceballos was joined on the all-tournament team by Minnesota’s Willie Burton, Texas’ Travis Mays, Louisville’s Felton Spencer, Loyola Marymount’s Bo Kimble and Jacksonville’s Dee Brown.

Marty Blake, the NBA director of scouting, said it’s too early to determine where Ceballos will be chosen in the June draft, but his performance in Orlando certainly enhanced his stock.

“He’s a good small forward who can run the court--I like him,” Blake said. “During the college season, it’s rare that you play against great players night in and night out. In Orlando, he played well against good players and that will help him.”

It’s official: The Fullerton City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal to hire prominent Orange County fund-raiser Robert Sharp, who will head the campaign to raise $12.6 million for construction of the Titan Sports Complex.

Sharp has been involved in the fund-raising efforts for several area projects, including the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Titan Notes

Freshman third baseman Phil Nevin and sophomore pitcher James Popoff were named Big West Conference player and pitcher of the week, respectively, for their performances in the Titans’ three-game sweep of Fresno State. Fullerton cracked the Collegiate Baseball Poll for the first time this season and is ranked 18th. . . . The Fullerton softball team will be conducting a blood-sampling drive in hopes of finding a compatible bone marrow donor for Christina Schnabl, an 8-year-old for whom the team has dedicated its season. The testing will be done Monday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. in Titan Gym. Potential donors must be between the ages of 18 and 55, in good health and free from infectious diseases. The test costs $75, and the team is accepting donations so others might be tested. For more information, call 993-4313. . . . The Titan baseball team’s game against UNLV on Saturday will be televised live by Prime Ticket. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Friday, and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Titan Field.