Titans’ Borgogno Forgoes Senior Season to Sign With Giants

Cal State Fullerton second baseman Mate Borgogno signed with the San Francisco Giants Tuesday and will report tonight to the team’s Class-A affiliate in Everett, Wash.

Also signing with major league teams Tuesday were Brent Bish, a former two-sport standout at Esperanza High School, with the San Diego Padres and Troy Paulsen, a former standout at La Quinta, with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Borgogno, an 18th-round draft pick in last week’s free agent amateur draft, wasn’t happy with the team’s original offer and had considered returning to Fullerton for his senior season. But a meeting Tuesday morning with a team official made his decision a lot easier.

“I don’t want to talk money matters, but they doubled their original offer and I’m happy with that,” Borgogno said. “I loved playing at Fullerton, but once they came up with the money, it wasn’t a hard decision.”

Borgogno, a left-handed hitter, was the Titans’ second-leading hitter with a .376 average, and he had 16 doubles, 44 runs scored and a team-high 54 runs batted in.

He also was one of the main reasons Fullerton went from a poor defensive team in 1989 to what Coach Larry Cochell called “the best infield I’ve had in 24 years.” After committing 29 errors in 1989, most of them at shortstop, Borgogno made only nine errors this season.

Bish, a junior shortstop at Cal State Los Angeles, was drafted in the 16th round and will report Thursday to the Padres’ Class-A team in Spokane, Wash.

Bish was The Times’ player of the year in soccer and the starting third baseman on the Esperanza baseball team that reached the 1987 Southern Section 5-A championship game.

Bish becomes the third infielder from that Esperanza team to sign professional contracts, joining Tom Redington (Atlanta Braves) and Doug Saunders (New York Mets) in the minor leagues.

Paulsen, a second baseman for Stanford, will report to the Phillies’ instructional team in Clearwater, Fla. Paulsen was named to the all-tournament team at the recent College World Series.