Early Tests Helped Baseball Team Get Team Concept Going

An 11-1 loss Sunday at Nevada ended its 14-game winning streak, but the Cal State Fullerton baseball team continues to attack the season with the finesse of a Bryan Harvey fastball.

The Titans (22-8), having already played 14 games against nationally ranked opponents, have risen to third in this week’s Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls.

And with memories of Fullerton’s 1992 College World Series team still fresh, shortstop Nate Rodriquez says this year’s team is already much more cohesive than last year’s.

“It’s different,” said Rodriquez, a senior captain. “We play as one. We know when to pick it up. We have a lot more fun this year. The coaches know everyone is giving everything they’ve got.

“(Last year) there was a different makeup until the end, when we decided to play as one. Before that, we struggled with it. We didn’t have the team concept early on.”

This year’s Titans, facing a brutal early schedule that included three-game series against Stanford, Texas, Florida State and games against Georgia Tech and Arkansas, stumbled to an 8-7 start.

Then, after getting blitzed by defending NCAA champion Pepperdine, 13-3, the Titans held a players-only meeting that Rodriquez said was key toward kick-starting the current run.

“It didn’t turn things around, it just made us go in the right direction,” Rodriquez said. “(The Pepperdine game) was the last straw. We said, ‘We’ve had enough of this.’ ”

The 14-game winning streak started two days later. It continued into last weekend’s series, which started with Fullerton routing Nevada, 10-1, and, 16-4. Then came Sunday’s loss. It was a wild series, in which:

--Kyle Evans hit two two-run homers Friday, was hit by a pitch in his next two at-bats and then, in his only other at-bat of the series, was hit by another pitch Sunday.

--Rodriquez slammed a homer Saturday, the first of his two-year Fullerton career.

--Dante Powell’s 18-game hitting streak came to an end Sunday.

Now, only two teams are ahead of Fullerton in both polls: Texas (32-5) is first and Texas A&M; (29-3) is second. Fullerton lost two of three at Texas in February but perhaps should have won two of three. The Titans led the series opener, 11-9, before Texas scored four runs in the eighth.

As for this week, the Titans get a rematch at Pepperdine at 2:30 p.m. today, then travel to Nevada Las Vegas for three games beginning Thursday before returning home for a game against Loyola Marymount next Tuesday.

“We know we can get better each day,” Rodriquez said. “Which is kind of scary.”

*

As the Fullerton athletic department awaits budget news from the state and tries to figure out ways to bring its suspended football program back, as promised, at the Division I-AA level for the fall of 1994, the Western Football Conference--the league in which Fullerton would play--is moving ahead with its plans for 1993.

Presidents and athletic directors from the five schools planning to play football in the conference--Cal State Sacramento, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Northridge, UC Davis and Southern Utah State--will meet April 14 in Sacramento to discuss parameters.

Although the goal is to run a cost-containment conference, Commissioner Vic Buccola, attempting to score some early public relations points, said the words “cost containment” are not being used publicly because of negative connotations.

But, if you’re wondering what a cost-containment conference is, it starts with:

--Limiting scholarships, perhaps to somewhere between 12 and 20 per school.

--Limiting the coaching staffs.

--Reducing the schedule by a game or two.

--Limiting the number of players on a team’s traveling squad.

The final numbers on these items are still up for discussion and will possibly be determined at the April 14 meeting.

Since they will not be playing this fall, the Titans will not have any representatives at the meeting.

Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard, though, reiterated that Fullerton intends to bring back football.

“The president (Milton Gordon), in suspending our program last fall, said it was his intent to bring it back in the fall of 1994 in a new conference,” Shumard said. “Nothing has changed to alter that plan.”

*

The envelope is in for the NCAA gymnastics championships from April 15-17 at Oregon State, and the Titan representative is. . .

Cristi Clifford, who will be seeded fifth in the individual all-around.

Aside from Clifford, the Titans had a rough time at the NCAA Regionals over the weekend; the Titans finished fifth at Oregon State.

And Celeste Delia fell on her floor routine, scored only a 9.1, finished sixth and will be the second alternate in the individual all-around at the NCAA championships.

*

The Fullerton men’s soccer team has signed Arthur Temblador, an all-CIF midfielder from Corona Centennial High.

“He’s an impact player,” Coach Al Mistri said. “He’s one of the best prospects in Southern California. He’ll step right in.”

Titan Notes

WAC-y World: Two former Titan assistant football coaches have found work in the Western Athletic Conference. Former offensive coordinator Jim Chaney has been hired at Wyoming, where he will be the recruiting coordinator, and former offensive backfield coach Rich Sheriff has landed at Hawaii, where he will be an administrative assistant in the football office . . .

Fullerton won an Award of Excellence for Fund-Raising and Promotions from Athletic Management magazine for its basketball campaign featuring Coach Brad Holland impersonating other Big West Conference coaches. Each game had a discount theme--for example, bald or balding fans were admitted into the game against Cal State Long Beach for free because of thin-haired 49er Coach Seth Greenberg--and Holland dressed the part for publicity photos . . . The men’s soccer team lost a shoot-out to San Diego on Saturday, 4-3, and then lost to Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday night, 5-3, as spring soccer continued. Fullerton, on spring break this week, has this weekend off.

Augie Garrido’s summer baseball camps: General Instructional Camp (ages 8-15), June 21-25; Little League Superstar Camp (ages 10-13), July 19-23; High School Superstar Camp (ages 13-15), Aug. 9-13. The camps are at Fullerton and vary in price depending on the session and whether it is day or overnight camping.

Big West Baseball

Conference Overall School W L T W L T CS Fullerton 11 1 0 22 8 0 San Jose State 6 3 0 22 10 0 CS Long Beach 5 4 0 18 14 0 UNLV 4 5 0 13 15 0 Nevada 1 2 0 18 7 1 Pacific 3 6 0 21 15 0 New Mexico State 3 6 0 20 15 0 UC Santa Barbara 0 6 0 13 18 1