NCAA’s Slant in Selecting Regional Sites Worries Garrido

The NCAA selected eight regional sites for its national baseball tournament Monday, and, although pairings won’t be announced until Monday, Cal State Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido was already feeling a bit jittery.

The list of host schools for the 48-team event tilts noticeably toward the Southeast, with Southeastern Conference members Louisiana State, Florida and Mississippi State, Atlantic Coast Conference member Florida State and major independent Miami gaining regionals.

Texas and Wichita State also were awarded regionals, and the only school with ties to the West that will host a regional is Arizona.

“What does that tell you about the West?” Garrido asked. “For the state of California not to have one (NCAA) venue is embarrassing. I would say that’s not a good sign.”

Garrido is somewhat concerned that the NCAA tournament field might be similarly skewed away from the West.

After what happened last season--Fullerton won a share of the Big West Conference title, went 34-22 but didn’t make the NCAA tournament--you can’t blame Garrido for feeling uneasy about the Titans’ playoff chances.

But it’s not as if he will spend this week on pins and needles. There are no guarantees, but Garrido is very confident the Titans, who closed the regular season Sunday with a 38-15 record, will play again in 1992.

There’s still a chance Fullerton could gain the conference’s automatic NCAA bid. Cal State Long Beach (16-5 in conference) is 1 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Titans (17-7) and must win two of three from UC Santa Barbara this week to clinch the title.

Even if Fullerton finishes second, the Titans appear to be solid at-large candidates. They are ranked seventh by Baseball America Magazine, ninth by Collegiate Baseball Magazine, and nine of their 15 losses were by two runs or less. The Titans’ largest margin of defeat was six runs.

Fullerton won every conference series and won two of three from both Arizona and Stanford, which are nationally ranked. They split two games with nationally ranked Cal State Northridge and UCLA, and the only team that had the upper hand on the Titans was USC, which beat them twice.

“I feel we’re one of the best 48 teams in the country,” Garrido said. “I think we have a chance to win the national title, and we deserve the opportunity to fulfill that goal.”

Still . . .

“Our destiny is in someone else’s hands, and that’s the problem being in an at-large pool,” said George Horton, Titan associate head coach. “We feel strongly about our chances, but we’ll still be a little on edge until we know for sure.”

Trendy Titans: Fullerton has developed a pattern of consistency that has been great for the team’s record, but might not benefit them in the NCAA tournament.

The Titans have never lost more than two consecutive games. For much of the season, they’d win three or four games and lose one; win three or four, lose one. Their longest winning streak of the season was seven, but three of those came against a very weak Southern Utah team.

Four times, Fullerton lost the third game of a conference series after winning the first two. The Titans couldn’t sweep lowly New Mexico State or University of the Pacific.

“There’s no room for a bad game in the regionals,” Horton said. “The thing we haven’t done is rise to the occasion and accomplish something we really wanted to do.

“We felt if we won our last six games, against UC Irvine and San Jose State, we’d be conference champs, and that certainly wasn’t an unrealistic goal. But then we lost two of six. The effort is there, but some ingredient is missing.”

Inconsistent pitching is a likely culprit. Ace James Popoff (11-2, 3.08 earned-run average) has been solid all season, but starters Dan Naulty (10-3, 3.77 ERA) and Derek Fahs (3-2, 4.37 ERA) have had their ups and downs.

“Someone is going to have to do something exceptional, something they didn’t think they could do, for us to win a championship,” Garrido said. “They (the pitchers) all have that potential, but someone has to step forward and do it.”

Shuffling the deck: Among the items being discussed at this week’s Big West Conference meetings in Las Vegas is a possible realignment that would affect Big West, Western Athletic and West Coast conference baseball teams, and some independents.

There are several proposals, each of which would align teams in geographical regions, thereby cutting travel costs and missed class time.

Fullerton would most likely join UC Irvine, Long Beach, Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, University of San Diego, and either Hawaii or Nevada Las Vegas in one conference. Pepperdine, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge are other possible candidates.

The realignment would roughly divide schools into four regions: Southern California, Central California, Northern California and Utah/Colorado/New Mexico.

Garrido, who submitted several proposals that Titan Athletic Director Bill Shumard will bring to the meetings, estimated Fullerton could cut travel costs from about $45,000 to $18,000 and missed class time from eight days to three under such a scenario.

Good draw: Titan softball Coach Judi Garman is confident about her team’s chances of winning this weekend’s NCAA Regional, during which Fullerton will play host to Long Beach and Toledo.

The fifth-ranked Titans (43-18) have won three of four games from the 19th-ranked 49ers (36-29) and won both games against the 18th-ranked Rockets (39-20) this season.

Long Beach and Toledo will play at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Fullerton will play the loser of that game at 3 p.m. The winners of the first two games play at 5 p.m., and the double-elimination regional concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The 49ers eliminated Fullerton from the regionals in 1990 and ‘91, but the Titans have been on a roll going into postseason play, winning 10 of their past 11 games.

“This is the best we’ve played at the end of the season in the last three or four years,” Garman said. “This team has confidence, and we got a good draw. If we can’t beat them, we don’t deserve to go to the College World Series.”

Titan Notes

Senior James Popoff, who pitched a five-hit shutout at San Jose State Friday, was named Big West co-pitcher of the week, and senior second baseman Steve Sisco, who went 10 for 22 (.455) with 11 runs batted in over five games, was named conference co-field player of the week Monday. . . . Left fielder Dante Powell set a school single-season record with eight triples, breaking Jose Mota’s previous mark of seven, set in 1985. . . . Shortstop Nate Rodriquez tied a conference and Titan school record with 15 sacrifice hits. . . . Third baseman Phil Nevin, who finished with 20 home runs, 71 RBIs and 52 walks, became the first Fullerton player to reach 20 homers, 70 RBIs and 50 walks in a season. . . . The Titan football team will conclude spring drills with a scrimmage Saturday, tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m. . . . Former Fullerton linebacker Clarence Siler has signed a free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers and participated in the team’s mini-camp last week.