Titans Fail to Get NCAA Berth

Stunned silence filled the lounge at the Fullerton Marriott, where Cal State Fullerton baseball Coach Augie Garrido, his assistants and several athletic department employees gathered Monday to watch the NCAA tournament selection show on ESPN.

Pairings for the eight regionals flashed across the big-screen television, but the Titans, College World Series participants last season, were not among the 48 teams chosen.

Garrido was so sure Fullerton would make the tournament--the Titans won 10 of their final 12 games to finish 34-22 and gain a share of the Big West Conference championship--that he arranged a press conference for reporters to watch the pairings show with him and get his reaction to Fullerton’s draw afterward.

But the feelings of excitement and anticipation at the top of the show gave way to dejection and frustration by the end.

“I’m stunned, shocked, disappointed for the players and assistant coaches,” Garrido said. “It’s very difficult to understand.”

The Titans had practiced all last week and played several simulated games in preparation for the regionals. But their scheduled three-hour practice Monday at Amerige Park was reduced to a half-hour team meeting, where players cursed and cried and grasped for explanations.

“I wasn’t sure what happened--I had to call my buddies to make sure I watched the whole show,” Fullerton pitcher Dan Naulty said. “I thought for sure we were going to make it. I don’t think it’s hit us as hard as it’s going to.”

Fullerton players and coaches weren’t the only ones in shock. Monday afternoon, hours after the pairings had been announced, Collegiate Baseball Magazine Managing Editor Lou Pavlovich Jr. was still trying to fathom a Titan-less tournament. Fullerton has advanced to the NCAA playoffs in 13 of the past 16 seasons.

“In 20 years of watching college baseball, this is the biggest miscarriage of justice I’ve ever seen,” Pavlovich said. “I realize the selection committee has a tough and thankless job, but how can Fullerton not get in? They tied for the conference lead, they swept three games from Cal State Long Beach. I’ve been scratching my head.”

The Titans, who completed their season May 12, were ranked 15th in Collegiate Baseball’s national poll last week but dropped out of the poll Monday.

“We’ve had a policy since 1958 that if you’re not in the tournament you can’t be in the top 30,” Pavlovich said. “That irritates me because Fullerton deserves to be in the top 15, or at least above Long Beach. I feel terrible about it.”

Fullerton coaches figured they had done everything they could to earn a tournament berth. The Titans played an extremely tough early season schedule and took their lumps against schools such as Stanford and Cal State Northridge, opening with a 3-9 record.

But Fullerton has a 31-13 record since then and tied Fresno State for the conference championship. The Bulldogs received an automatic NCAA bid because of their 2-1 record against Fullerton.

“Supposedly, how you finish the season is one of the tournament criteria, and we did some positive things in the second half,” said George Horton, Fullerton associate head coach. “There was no doubt in our minds we were going to be in the tournament.”

There were plenty of doubts among Titans as to how the NCAA field was chosen, though. Players couldn’t understand how California, which went 34-25 and finished third in the Pacific-10 Southern Division, and Long Beach, which went 40-19 but finished behind Fullerton in the conference standings, made the tournament. The fact that Cal Coach Bob Milano was on the selection committee did not go unnoticed, however.

The Titans swept a three-game series from Long Beach and beat Cal twice at Berkeley. Ironically, had Long Beach not lost to sixth-place Pacific once in its final series, Fullerton, Fresno State and Long Beach would have tied for the conference title, and the Titans, based on tie-breaking procedures, would have gained the automatic tournament berth.

“Once I saw that Long Beach was in, I didn’t think there was any way they could take them and not us,” Fullerton third baseman Jason Moler said. “I feel we’ve been cheated. As the show ended, I got sick. There were butterflies in my stomach. I couldn’t believe it.”

Added designated hitter Frank Charles: “When I saw Cal make it, I thought we were in for sure because we had a better record, swept them up there and were co-champs in our conference. I’m in a state of disbelief.”

Two members of the nine-person NCAA selection committee, Rice Coach David Hall and Mississippi State Athletic Director Larry Templeton, said Fullerton was in contention for a tournament berth for most of their eight-hour meeting Sunday and three-hour meeting Monday morning.

But the Titans’ Ratings Percentage Index, which is based on record and strength of schedule against Division I teams, apparently wasn’t good enough. Fullerton had a 29-22 record against Division I teams.

“Their RPI was in the real marginal range,” Hall said. “They came on in the second half of the season and played well, no question. But the strength of the field just didn’t warrant them getting a berth.”

Also hurting Fullerton was the fact that several conference tournament upsets resulted in several marginal teams earning some of the 26 automatic berths. For instance, the University of Alabama-Birmingham (27-28) won the Sun Belt tournament, gaining an automatic bid, while Jacksonville and South Alabama, which each won Sun Belt divisional titles, received at-large berths.

San Diego State (43-19) upset Hawaii in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament and gained an automatic berth, while the Rainbows were an at-large selection. Towson State (27-21-1) gained an automatic bid by upsetting Rider, which received an at-large bid, in the East Coast Conference Tournament.

“That made the at-large pool shrink some,” Templeton said. “There were a lot of other teams that didn’t make it that you have a hard time justifying. That’s one reason we need this field expanded to 64 teams.”

This was of little consolation to the Titans, though.

“This is ridiculous,” shortstop Phil Nevin said. “There’s no other team in the country as hot as us right now. I don’t know what more to say. I could go on and on.”