Baseball Arrives to Save the Day

In the middle of Cal State Fullerton’s basketball game last week with Oklahoma Baptist, the No. 1-ranked NAIA team in the nation, an Oklahoma Baptist stat girl turned to Tim Murphy with a question.

“Where are you guys ranked?” the girl innocently asked Murphy, who helps out the Titan sports information department.

Uh, how low do the rankings go? The Titans, 2-8, have yet to defeat a Division I team this season.

But if they teach you one thing in the sports information business, it is to accentuate the positive. Where are the Titans ranked? Murphy didn’t blink.

“We’re third in College Sports, fifth in Collegiate Baseball and sixth in Baseball America,” he shot back.

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Ah, baseball: Just when things appear hopeless at Fullerton, there is always baseball. And the Titans, expecting big things this year since they have nearly the entire pitching staff back, start practice today in preparation for their Jan. 28 opener at Stanford.

“We’re excited,” associate head coach George Horton said, with good reason.

Starting pitchers Dan Ricabal (11-3, 3.48 earned-run average last year), Mike Parisi (10-3, 4.71) and Derek Fahs (3-3) are all back.

So are Jon Ward, who was promising as a freshman last season in starting and relief roles, Ted Silva, who was 4-2 with seven saves, and Chad Rolish, who was consistent in relief and then, in his only start, worked a splendid game in the NCAA Regionals as Fullerton shut out McNeese State, 2-0.

Add All-American outfielder Dante Powell, who batted .335 last year with 12 homers, 57 RBIs and a team-leading 42 stolen bases, and several other returning players, and the high rankings are easily explained.

“Other than the obvious things--getting as far along as we can--we need some questions answered,” Horton said. “There are still some jobs to be won. There are some very competitive battles as for who our top nine players will be. We think we have a pretty good idea, but you can’t count anyone out.”

Among the most significant questions:

--Who will step up and replace second baseman Jeremy Carr and shortstop Nate Rodriquez? Both finished their eligibility last year. The leading candidate at second is Jeff Ferguson, who played third last year. At shortstop, freshman Jack Jones leads the pack.

--Assuming Ferguson makes the transition to second, who does that leave to play third? The early leader is Craig Skyberg, who batted .200 in 10 games last spring.

--Who will replace Carr as the team’s leadoff hitter? That slot is open right now.

--Aside from Powell, who is a fixture in center field, who will be the other two outfielders? Jim Betzsold, who played right last year, has the inside track again, but that hinges on the continued recovery of his arm. He hurt it over the summer while pitching.

There will be plenty of practice time for Horton and Coach Augie Garrido to assess things. The Titans will practice 6 1/2 hours a day until the Jan. 28 opener nears. Then, once school resumes on Jan. 31, the NCAA maximum of 20 practice hours a week begins.

And if all of these questions aren’t sorted out by the time the season opens, Fullerton’s pitching should be solid enough to buy some time.

“We hope (pitching is a strength),” Horton said. “If it isn’t, we’re in trouble. We’ve got some of our better athletes there, and they’ve got experience now. Youth is not an excuse. They’ve experienced national competition, the NCAA Regionals, they’ve played at Florida State and Texas.”

And, they’ve experienced the expectations. The Titans have reached the point where high rankings are nothing new. They were ranked as high as third nationally at one point last spring.

“We expect to go to Omaha (for the College World Series),” Horton said. “So we should be ranked in the top eight. If we don’t go to Omaha, we’ll look back on the year and say we didn’t succeed.”

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Sundance Kids: Garrido and Horton have been keeping close tabs on the weather reports and, so far, it looks dry for later in the week.

“We spent the first eight days of practice last year indoors,” said Horton, who has reserved gym time again this year just in case. “We had all these plans . . . “

*

Let’s See: Ways for the Fullerton basketball team to make better use of its time during the first half of games:

1. Install a television in the locker room, turn on reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” and don’t bother coming out for the first 20 minutes.

2. Catch up on homework.

3. Reread fine print of scholarship papers.

4. Compare and contrast the writing crafts of Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh, focusing on their literary allusions and high-quality metaphors.

Why not? Anything would be better than stepping on the court for the opening tipoff. Among Fullerton’s first-half transgressions this season:

--Getting behind UC Irvine, 27-7, on Monday.

--Falling behind Oklahoma Baptist, 26-12, last week.

--Shooting 39% and committing 13 turnovers against Northern Iowa.

--Shooting 27% against Colorado State.

--Falling behind St. Mary’s, 29-13.

The list goes on; you get the drift.

“We’ve shown that we’re a slow starting team this year and I don’t understand why,” Holland said.

Titan Notes

Outfielder Dante Powell was named to Baseball America’s preseason All-American team this week. . . . The baseball team has added an exhibition game to its schedule, against Waseda University of Tokyo on March 3 at Titan Field. . . . Junior Marissa Frial had a career-high 25 points during the Fullerton women’s basketball team’s 88-76 loss at UC Santa Barbara on Monday. Shayla Bradshaw led the Titans with 27. . . . The annual Titan alumni baseball game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Jan. 16 on Titan Field.