CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : He’s Making Good Impressions

Opponents haven’t been hitting Cal State Fullerton pitcher Dan Naulty too well this season--they have a .220 average against the right-hander--but Naulty is doing a good job of hitting opponents.

Naulty, whose submarine-style delivery reminds you of Dennis Eckersley’s, has hit 14 batters, including two during Saturday’s 6-4 loss to Fresno State.

The former Ocean View High School and Cerritos College standout has shattered the school single-season hit batsmen record of 11, previously held by five others, and has a good shot at breaking the national record of 19, set by Duke’s Mike Trombley in 1989.

“I guess I’ll lead the team in something,” Naulty said.

Naulty, who throws a fastball, slider and sinker, has a simple explanation for all the hit batsmen: “My objective is to pitch inside to right-handed hitters,” he said. “Sometimes I come too much inside.”

Naulty also hit 15 batters at Cerritos last season, but if you think he’s wild now, you should have seen him during his junior year at Ocean View, when he switched from an overhand to a sidearm delivery.

“I was all over the place then,” Naulty said. “I had no idea where the ball was going.”

Naulty hopes opposing hitters think the same thing. The 6-foot-6 junior has much better command of his pitches now, but those occasional wild streaks sometimes work to his advantage.

“I know some batters are afraid in there when he’s pitching,” Titan catcher Matt Hattabaugh said. “He’s hit so many guys. He’s 6-6 and comes at you from a different angle. If you’re afraid of getting hit, he’ll throw a slider on the outside corner and you won’t have a chance.”

Despite Saturday’s rough outing, when he allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings, Naulty has emerged as one of Fullerton’s best pitchers. Before the Fresno State game, he gave up only two runs and nine hits in complete-game victories over UC Irvine and University of the Pacific.

Naulty is now 4-3 with a 4.06 earned-run average and 43 strikeouts and 27 walks in 71 innings, but Hattabaugh thinks his best days are ahead of him.

“In my opinion, Dan hasn’t had his best stuff,” said Hattabaugh, who caught Naulty for a season at Cerritos. “When he has his best stuff, I wouldn’t be surprised if he no-hit someone.”

Add baseball: Frank Charles, who hit a pair of three-run home runs and a three-run triple Sunday in Fullerton’s 20-5 victory over Fresno State, was named Big West Conference Field Player of the Week on Monday.

Charles, the Titans’ designated hitter, went seven for 18 with nine runs, three homers and 13 RBIs on the week.

The school doesn’t keep single-game batting records, but Charles’ nine-RBI performance was two short of the conference record of 11 in a game, set by Nevada Las Vegas’ Mike Oglesbee against Cal State Long Beach in 1985.

Fullerton third baseman Jason Moler went eight for 12 during the three-game Fresno State series, including a five-for-six, one-RBI performance Sunday.

How can Moler generate only one RBI with five hits in a 20-run game, you ask? Because Charles, who bats in the cleanup spot ahead of Moler, cleaned the bases, leaving little for Moler to knock in.

Moler is batting .581, Charles has 17 RBIs and Frank Herman has 12 walks in nine conference games. The Titans (22-17, 6-3 in conference) enter this weekend’s three-game series at UNLV in a third-place tie with the Rebels, behind Fresno State (8-1) and Long Beach (7-2).

Clarence Siler, an outside linebacker whose two-year Titan career has been plagued by injuries, hopes his medical background doesn’t prevent him from being drafted by an NFL team this weekend.

Siler injured an ankle late in the 1989 season, suffered gunshot wounds in the shoulder and forearm in April, 1990, and missed three games in 1990 because of an ankle injury.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder didn’t help his pro chances at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in February, running a 4.78-second 40-yard dash and pulling a groin muscle on the last day of workouts.

“Speed was supposed to be my strength,” Siler said.

The only Titan with a legitimate chance of being drafted, Siler will most likely be a low-round selection if chosen. Siler, who is not enrolled in classes this semester and is at least a year away from graduation, isn’t sure what he’ll do if he’s not drafted.

“I haven’t been thinking about that,” he said. “I’ve just been thinking good things right now.”

Roger Donate, who last week thought he had earned a berth in this weekend’s NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships, will not be going to Penn State for the meet after all.

Donate finished in an eight-way tie for 12th place on the rings April 6 at the NCAA West Regionals at Oklahoma, but based on the NCAA’s tie-breaking system, he didn’t qualify for the national meet.

Fullerton Coach Dick Wolfe, who announced his resignation last week after 23 years at the school, will take one gymnast, Diego Lopez, to the nationals. Lopez will compete in the vault.

Two Titan women gymnasts, Stacy Fowlkes and Stacey Harris, will compete in the individual all-around competition at this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Championships at the University of Alabama.

Titan Notes

Fullerton softball Coach Judi Garman will be going for her 600th Titan victory Friday when fifth-ranked Fullerton plays host to fourth-ranked UNLV at 5 p.m. Garman, the former Golden West College coach who passed the 800-career victory mark earlier this season, has a 599-170-4 record in her 12th season with the Titans. . . . With 14 Big West Conference games remaining, the Fullerton softball team (39-11-1, 15-6-1 in conference) is in third place behind Fresno State (42-5, 22-2) and UNLV (36-11-1, 15-4-1). The Titans have been led offensively by Jill Matyuch (.299) and Kim Powers (16 RBIs). Sophomore pitcher Tiffany Boyd (24-4) ranks third in the nation in victories and 27th in earned-run average (0.80), and junior pitcher Ann Van Dortrecht ranks 15th nationally in strikeouts per seven innings pitched (7.2). The right-hander has 120 strikeouts in 117.3 innings.

Hector Trinidad, a right-handed pitcher from Pioneer High in Santa Fe Springs, has signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Fullerton. . . . The starting time for Fullerton’s baseball game against Chapman, originally scheduled for 2:30 p.m. today at Amerige Park, has been moved to 7 p.m. The Titans’ April 24 home game against UCLA has also been switched from 2:30 p.m. to 7.