Pitcher Just What the Doctor Ordered

This College World Series continues to test Cal State Fullerton’s patients.

Third baseman Phil Nevin is hospitalized with a mysterious case of racked ribs and, within hours of stepping away from the X-ray camera, delivers the grand slam that delivers the Titans in their opener.

Starting pitcher Mike Parisi is a walking, talking disabled list--he has contracted both strep throat and mononucleosis--but takes the mound anyway and handles Florida State’s lineup the same way he handled Dr. Martin Mancuso’s hypodermic needle.

Two penicillin shots on Monday.

Two Seminole hits on Tuesday.

Two defeats are all a team is allowed in a College World Series, and that’s the number Nevin and Parisi now have laid on Florida State. The final totals were 7-2 and 6-0, which means the Seminoles have been outscored by the weak and the infirm by a cumulative margin of 13-2.

Don’t mull about it too long on the flight back to Tallahassee, guys.

It’s enough to make a body sick.

Parisi, a freshman from Arcadia High School, spent the day before the biggest game of his life floored by one hellacious doubleheader. Mononucleosis and strep throat waylay a person from different angles. With mononucleosis, you can’t get enough sleep. But with strep throat, you can’t fall asleep.

“It was awful,” Parisi said. “I couldn’t swallow. I had to keep getting up and forcing myself to drink something. I was exhausted, but my throat hurt too much to sleep.”

But not too much to pitch. Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido and chief assistant George Horton met with Parisi Tuesday morning to assess the situation. On the table: The likelihood of starting a frail freshman against a 49-20 Florida State team in a World Series elimination game and surviving to see Wednesday.

Garrido and Horton listed their status as fair.

“We told Mike we’d be happy with nine outs,” Garrido said. Three innings. Get the Titans into the fourth, with the game still in hand, and Garrido and Horton would try to think of something.

Parisi doubled that mileage. He yielded a line-drive single in the first inning and a flared double in the fourth and that was it through six innings. He walked three but allowed only two runners to reach second base. He was never in trouble, but he was under constant scrutiny, with Horton making regular checkups on the mound.

“Anytime Mike told George he felt he had a 50-50 chance to get the next batter, that was the signal,” Garrido said. “If he said it was only 50-50, we weren’t going to mess with it.”

Fifty-fifty? Florida State should have felt so sure. The Seminoles were the semi-noles against Parisi, mere shadows of their .302-hitting selves.

This was a batting order that featured two first-round draft choices, two of the top 18 players selected Monday. Kenny Felder, drafted 12th by Milwaukee, batted .222 in Omaha, including his harmless bloop double Tuesday. Roberts, chosen 18th by the Mets, didn’t have a hit here, going 0 for 3 against Parisi and 0 for 11 against the field.

And to compound matters for Florida State, leadoff hitter Link Jarrett didn’t. He was 0 for 3 against Parisi, 0 for 1 against Titan reliever Paco Chavez and one for 13 in the Series.

The missing Link, uncovered at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Parisi’s Tuesday grinder was just the latest head-shaking episode in an improbable first Titan season. Improbable, first of all, in that he is a Titan. Parisi was recruited by Garrido as a safety valve; he was only offered a half-scholarship, which he originally refused.

“I saw all the other pitchers getting full rides,” Parisi said, “and couldn’t believe I was getting only half. I told them no. I decided to go to junior college and take my chances with the draft.”

Then, last June, Fullerton’s top pitching recruit, Hector Trinidad, signed with the Cubs and Garrido had to scramble. Parisi’s phone rang again. “They called on June 18, my birthday, to basically offer me Hector’s scholarship,” Parisi said. He grinned and shrugged.

“If they were willing to waste a full scholarship, I might as well take it.”

Initially, Parisi expected the mere minimum from 1992. “I was hoping to make the traveling team,” he said. He fell short in February, missing the trip to Stanford, and later began chipping in with mop-up relief innings.

Thrown a spot start against Ohio State during a schedule crunch in late March, Parisi surprised everyone in blue and orange, especially himself. He pitched five innings, allowed two earned runs and beat the Buckeyes, 6-4.

On the strength of those innings, Garrido made Parisi his midweek starter--tossing him into the fray against the USCs and UCLAs while Dan Naulty and James Popoff braced for Big West weekend starts.

Parisi emerged 4-1, which earned him another start in the South I regional, against LSU in Baton Rouge. Again, the path was Parisi-to-Paco and again Fullerton won by a shutout, 11-0.

“He has a certain star-like quality,” Garrido said. “That’s one of the reasons I decided to start him at Baton Rouge. He’s someone who wants to be special.

“I first picked up on it after Kevin Costner Night at our field. I was looking at the stacks of pictures taken of Costner and everywhere I looked, I saw Parisi.

“ ‘This guy wants to be something,’ I thought. He wants to be in the picture--that’s the way I read it.”

Give Parisi that opportunity, and the picture of health is not a requirement.