Time Off Revitalizes the Titans : College baseball: Fullerton, which started season 18-15, comes back after a weekend off to win Big West and gain an NCAA tournament berth.

It wasn’t much as far as postgame speeches go, but the timing was perfect. One simple order from Cal State Fullerton baseball Coach Larry Cochell turned out to be just the tonic the Titans needed to turn their season around.

Fullerton had just lost to Pepperdine, 6-1, April 6. The Titans, trudging along a path of inconsistency, had dropped to 18-15 and seemed headed for another season such as 1989, which dead-ended at 30-27.

No games were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but with conference favorite Fresno State coming in the following weekend, players were expecting two more days of grueling practices.

But Cochell had something else in mind and greeted his team with these words of wisdom:

Fellas, take the weekend off.

Smart move, coach.

After playing well in a 6-5 loss to USC, the Titans swept a three-game series from Fresno State. They swept another three games from Nevada Las Vegas and took two of three from UC Santa Barbara.

A preseason pick by Big West coaches to finish fifth, Fullerton won the conference, closing the regular season 32-21, 13-5 in conference, and gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins this week.

And the rest, some players say, was the key.

“The biggest turning point of the season was when we had a couple of days off,” third baseman Phil Nevin said. “It was a matter of getting away, not even thinking about baseball. When we came back, people were a lot more loose.

“No one tightened up or said we had to win now. Everyone just played with the attitude that if we win, we win, and if we don’t, well, no one expected us to win.”

Because the conference season was just three games old--no matter how erratic the Titans were, they could still get hot and win a race that had no dominant team--it seemed to give players a boost.

And a break from the daily grind of a baseball season allowed the Titans to gain a new perspective.

“I don’t know if we were physically or mentally tired or both, but we needed to get away,” outfielder Rich Gonzales said. “We came back fresh and excited because we knew league (play) was starting. We got some wins and some confidence and just kept rolling.”

Fullerton was 18-15 before the two-day sabbatical and 14-6 afterward. Once a sporadic team that rarely combined good pitching with good hitting, the Titans began to put their act together.

They won low-scoring games and high-scoring games. They got clutch hits, from the top and bottom of the order. They got solid starting pitching, good relief pitching, and their defense, which had been outstanding all year, continued to perform well.

“I always thought if the kids continued to believe in themselves, they’d get through the rough times and be OK,” Cochell said. “We had too good of a ballclub not to do well.”

The weekend off put the Titans in the right frame of mind to play Fresno State, and their sweep of the Bulldogs snapped them out of their doldrums. But there were many other factors that contributed to Fullerton’s success.

Here are some theories of how the Big West was won:

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The Titans’ surge didn’t coincide exactly with Nevin’s move from the No. 3 batting position to the leadoff spot, but Nevin got hot after the switch and remained hot through conference play.

Cochell made the move for the Illinois game March 22. In 22 games as the No. 3 hitter, Nevin hit .271 with three home runs, 20 runs and 16 runs batted in. In 31 games since the move, he has hit .408 with 36 runs, 11 home runs and 16 RBIs. Nevin has 11 stolen bases and 38 walks on the season.

“Nevin gives us three dimensions from the leadoff position,” Cochell said. “He can get things going with a home run, he leads the team in walks and can steal bases.”

Nevin has a .490 on-base percentage from the leadoff position, which means that almost half of the time Nos. 2 and 3 hitters Mate Borgogno and Gonzales have come up, Nevin has been on base.

Borgogno (.379, 15 doubles, 53 RBIs) and Gonzales (.382, four home runs, 11 doubles, 37 RBIs) have been the team’s most consistent hitters, but with Nevin on base so much, they were able to generate even more runs.

“It was a good move by coach,” Nevin said. “It worked, so you don’t mess with it.”

BOTTOM’S UP

For Nevin to have all those RBIs from the leadoff spot, some players had to be getting on base in front of him. Shortstop Kevin Farlow, who bats ninth, and center fielder Domingo Mota, who bats eighth, were usually those players.

Farlow was hitting .250 before the Illinois game but has hit .292 with a .367 on-base percentage since. He has scored 25 of his 41 runs since the Illinois game. Mota is batting .260 and leads the team with 15 stolen bases.

“They have given the top of our order a chance to drive in runs,” Cochell said.

Farlow also has 29 RBIs, which is good for a No. 9 hitter, and for that, he can thank teammates Steve Sisco, Matt Hattabaugh and David Ayala, who usually bat in the lower half of the order.

“There’s not a weak point in our lineup,” Nevin said. “We have consistent hitters all the way through.”

ALL TOGETHER NOW

So often during the first two months of the season, Fullerton played like a team in need of a tuneup. One night, the Titans would get great pitching and no hitting. The next, they’d hit well and pitch poorly. Their timing was terrible.

Exhibit A: James Popoff held a powerful Stanford team to one run and seven hits, but the Titans couldn’t score.

Exhibit B: The Titans racked a good Loyola Marymount team for 10 runs on 14 hits, but Fullerton pitchers allowed 12 runs on 16 hits.

Exhibit C: The Titans held lightly regarded U.S. International University to four hits, but USIU scored three runs and won, 3-2.

The bullpen wasn’t much help, either. The Titans blew a five-run lead in the ninth and lost to Wyoming, 8-7. Fullerton led Riverside, 4-0, in the eighth and lost, 5-4.

But since the Fresno State series, the Titans have excelled in all phases of the game, save for a few lapses. Fullerton outhit its conference opponents, 211-161, and outscored them, 129-75.

The Titans batted .341 with 21 home runs in conference, and opponents hit .265 with seven homers. Fullerton’s pitchers had a 3.65 earned-run average in conference, and opponents had a 6.57. ERA.

Pitchers Popoff, Huck Flener and Sam Colarusso have started and thrown well in all but two conference games, and relievers Chris Robinson, Doug Ketchen and Bill Fitzgerald have contributed.

“It was a matter of putting things together at the right time, and we’re doing that now,” Nevin said. “A sign of a good team is that it gets hot when it needs to. You don’t want to peak at the beginning of the season. You want to peak toward the end.”

HOME SWEET HOME

The schedule worked in Fullerton’s favor in that the Titans’ three toughest conference foes, Fresno State, UCSB and UNLV, had to travel to Fullerton this season.

Few Big West teams, including the Titans, have been successful on the road. Fullerton is 25-7 at home, including an 8-1 record against the Bulldogs, Gauchos and Rebels, but 7-14 on the road.

Fresno State had played 35 consecutive home games and was 27-11 before traveling to Fullerton. Eventually, all eight of the Bulldogs’ conference losses came on the road.

“It certainly didn’t hurt that we played those teams at home,” Cochell said. “We haven’t been a good road team, but neither has Fresno State, Arizona State or USC. It’s tougher to win on the road. I’m not sure why, but it probably has something to do with the comfort zone.”

MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY

It doesn’t appear in the box scores or statistics, but camaraderie, Cochell and his players say, has had a lot to do with Fullerton’s success.

“Last year, we had a lot more talent, but we also had more distractions,” Gonzales said. “There were more people griping about not playing last season. That affected the team a bit. But this team has chemistry--it’s like a family.”

This was extremely important during the first two months of the season, when the atmosphere was ripe for dissension and finger-pointing.

“Everyone has his role, and everyone has a chance to produce,” Nevin said.

Cochell said he has not had to discipline any players this season--no suspensions, no benchings, no dismissals. “It’s the first team I’ve played on where nobody has been kicked off,” Nevin said.

Cochell’s most severe punishment, he said, was making players run laps for being a few minutes late to practice.

“This has been one of my most enjoyable years in 24 years of coaching because it has been free of problems,” Cochell said. “That’s a big reason why we are where we are. You’re always going to go through bad times, but if you stay focused, committed and don’t get divided, you’ll persevere.”