Titans Face Rough Road : College baseball: After a 5-2 loss to USC, Cal State Fullerton must win twice to stay alive.

These are the NCAA baseball regionals:

Waiting all day to play a team you’ve already defeated twice this season. Sleeping in, grabbing a late breakfast, going to play miniature golf with your teammates, laughing, joking, talking, thinking. Taking a nap before the 8 p.m. game time . . .

And then getting the air sucked right out of you.

As Saturday slipped into Sunday here, the Cal State Fullerton baseball team returned to its hotel in the position the Titans wanted to avoid. USC won Saturday evening at Disch-Falk Field, 5-2, with the Trojans getting the best of Dan Ricabal, the Titans’ top pitcher.

And here is where it gets sticky for the Titans: They dropped into the losers’ bracket of the Central II Regional. If they are to make their second consecutive trip to the College World Series, the Titans (34-18) must defeat sixth-seeded McNeese State (38-22) this afternoon and then turn right around and play a second game against the loser of today’s USC-Texas game. Then they would have to win twice Monday.

One loss and it’s time to go home.

“Hell, our backs are up against the wall,” second baseman Jeremy Carr said. “There’s nothing we can do except punch our way out, I guess.”

Said Coach Augie Garrido: “I feel like the club is mentally tough, physically tough and mature. I feel like they will handle this loss.”

It was bitter. USC scored four of its runs on two-out hits and Trojan starter Mike Collett (9-4) and closer Dan Hubbs (18 saves) combined to strike out 11 Titans.

Fullerton led twice, 1-0 and 2-1, but couldn’t hang on despite decent pitching from Ricabal (11-3), who allowed five runs--four earned--and nine hits in 7 1/3 innings.

But the Titans couldn’t catch a break. Tied, 1-1, in the second, they moved catcher Bret Hemphill to third with only one out--and then he was picked off while the Titans had the squeeze play on.

Twice they left Carr standing on third base at the end of an inning. And Carr, first baseman D.C. Olsen and shortstop Nate Rodriquez were the only players in the lineup to avoid striking out.

“We’re a young team,” said Carr, a senior. “Some guys, I’m not saying they were afraid, but I think they were kind of playing scared. They were in the same situations where they always do something right, and tonight they didn’t do it.

“I’m not putting down my teammates. We’re young. It’s just youth.”

Never mind that Fullerton won at USC on March 23, 9-3, and again at Titan Field on April 20, 8-7. On Saturday, the Titans never could figure out Trojan pitching. Center fielder Dante Powell struck out three times and designated hitter Adam Millan, right fielder Jim Betzsold and Hemphill all fanned twice each.

“We had (Fullerton) right where we wanted them,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie joked. “We set them up with those other two losses. If we were only going to get one of the three, I guess this is the one to get.”

As frustrating as the evening was for Fullerton, it was that exhilarating for USC. The fourth-seeded Trojans (34-27) now have won a season-high six-consecutive games, during which time they have outscored opponents 60-8. Left fielder J.P. Roberge, who had three hits against Fullerton, extended his hitting streak to 19 games.

And Hubbs, who leads the nation in saves, got some personal revenge. It was he who allowed a two-run, eighth-inning single to Millan on April 20 as Fullerton rallied to defeat USC, 8-7.

Saturday, Millan came to bat in the eighth with two out, the Titans trailing, 4-2, and runners on second and third. Hubbs struck him out.

“The last time I threw him a 2-and-2 slider and he hit it to left field,” Hubbs said. “It was a good pitch. He just got the best of that at-bat.

“Today, I knew I couldn’t give up a hit to tie the game. He was looking for the breaking ball, and I threw a 2-and-2 fastball up and in. I was lucky he didn’t hit it.”

Said Garrido: “Everything was close today. And in everything that was close, most things went their way. That’s the game. It’s tough. It’s like putting in golf.”

“So I don’t play golf.”

And as these Titans face their Titanic day, there will be no miniature golf, either. From Fullerton today, there will only be deep breaths and gritted teeth.

And they hope, another day.

Titan Notes

Second baseman Jeremy Carr jammed his left thumb during Friday’s opener against Maine but played the entire game against USC. It was tender, he said, but it didn’t hamper his play. . . . Fullerton’s 13-game regional winning streak came to an end with the loss.