COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Loss Leaves Titans’ Fate in NCAA Officials’ Hands

Their long afternoon finally ended with most of the Cal State Fullerton players flopped on the grass in front of their dugout, the field being watered behind them, with assistant coach George Horton telling them to go home.

The Cal State Long Beach-Nevada game was in extra innings, and Horton assured players Titan officials would stay in touch with their Cal State Long Beach counterparts and get the players a score when it was finished.

But it no longer mattered.

The Titans closed their Big West season with a 5-3 loss to San Jose State at Titan Field, meaning that they will have to sit in front of their televisions May 24 to see if they get an NCAA tournament bid.

That Cal State Long Beach defeated Nevada, 4-3, in 12 innings, really didn’t matter much thanks to the 49ers’ three-game sweep April 16-18 at Titan Field. It was only a matter of semantics: Fullerton (33-16, 16-5) finishes second in the Big West Conference. But even if the Titans had tied for first, Cal State Long Beach’s victory over Nevada wrapped up the tiebreaker and the automatic NCAA berth based on the sweep at Fullerton.

“No matter what happens here, we’re at the discretion of the committee,” Coach Augie Garrido said. “Tuesday night’s game (against UCLA) becomes important because of that.”

The Titans’ uphill battle since the Cal State Long Beach series was played out on a smaller scale Sunday, with the incline becoming steeper by the end of the first. Fullerton starter Kimson Hollibaugh (3-5) lasted only seven batters, giving up four runs on four hits in 2/3 of an inning.

The Titans never recovered. Trailing 5-2 in the fifth, they loaded the bases but Dante Powell hit into an inning-ending double play. They left the bases loaded in the sixth and left runners at the corners in the eighth, trailing, 5-3.

And with Jeremy Carr on third in the ninth and the tying run at the plate, Tony Banks hit a long fly to the warning track in right, but the ball and Fullerton’s conference season nestled snugly into Darin Upton’s glove.

“I didn’t think I had hit it out from my swing,” Banks said. “But I thought that if there was a little help from the wind . . . “

But on this day, Fullerton wasn’t going to get help from anybody, not San Jose State (32-19, 10-10), Cal State Long Beach or the wind.

“We just couldn’t get that one clutch hit,” Carr said. “That one hit .”

And the mounting failed opportunities were magnified because of San Jose State’s first inning.

“That had a tremendous amount to do with it,” Garrido said. “I honestly think that’s where the pressure came from.”

Still, answers didn’t help as the Titans trudged off their field, the optimism of the season now dimmed by a large dose of dejection.

“We should have been able to come back,” Carr said. “We should be able to score more than three runs and beat these guys.”

In a nonconference game:

Chapman 12, USC 7--Chris Briones hit a grand slam in the second inning to give visiting Chapman (22-32) an 8-2 lead. It was the 11th home run for Briones. Octavio Medina had four singles and drove in a run and Kevin Cook added three hits, including a double, and an RBI for Chapman.

Corey Giuliano allowed seven runs and 12 hits but shutout USC over the final three innings for the complete-game victory.