Baseball Schedule Offers Challenges

No. 1 vs. No. 2: So much for that “Just Another Game” attitude most athletes have toward premier regular-season matchups. Mike Parisi, ace for the second-ranked Titan baseball team, doesn’t deny it--Sunday’s start against top-ranked Georgia Tech in the Anaheim Hilton & Towers tournament final at Titan Field will be one of his biggest.

“I’ll be as excited as I was when I pitched against Louisiana State in the 1992 regionals,” said Parisi, a junior right-hander who is 3-0 with a 1.24 earned-run average. “I’m going to work real hard this week to get ready.”

A sweep of the tournament--Fullerton plays San Diego Friday and Oklahoma Saturday--would vault the Titans (12-2) who had won 11 in a row before losing to UC Riverside Tuesday, into the top spot in national polls. But that’s not a concern for Fullerton coaches at this point.

“We look at it as another test to see how we compare to other top teams,” said George Horton, associate head coach. “In the big picture, the reason we schedule teams like Georgia Tech, Arizona and Texas is to develop players, get used to the best competition and prepare us for post-season play.”

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On the mark: After a two-year delay, the Titan track and field team will play host to its first meet in the Titan Sports Complex Saturday when UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine visit at 12:15 p.m.

A striper who was painting lanes in November, 1991, discovered the track was about 7 feet too long, and the problem was finally corrected this winter when the east turn was virtually rebuilt.

Fullerton Coach John Elders has been busy with last-minute details--securing officials, borrowing equipment from UCI, getting the lanes painted and the discus cage installed. He has done much of the work himself.

“I’ll be lucky to be alive by the end of the week,” Elders said. “But I’m real excited about this weekend. Every race will be a stadium record.”

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Chip off the ol’ block: Fullerton basketball fans might notice a familiar face in the movie, “Blue Chips.” Former Titan center Sean Williams is a teammate of Shaquille O’Neal and appears in many of the locker room scenes, in a non-speaking role.

There was only one glimpse of Williams, who wears No. 31, in an action shot, but don’t feel bad for the 6-foot-10 center, who is now playing professionally in Brazil. He made $200 a day for a month last summer when the movie was filmed.

Titan Coach Brad Holland took his team to see the movie last Friday, the night before a game at New Mexico State. Reviews weren’t good.

“They made some good points, but overall, I don’t think the movie was very good,” Fullerton assistant Chris Brazier said.

And what about Williams?

“Sean was Sean.”

Titan Notes

The field for next year’s Anaheim Hilton & Towers baseball tournament at Titan Field will consist of Fullerton, Texas, Pepperdine and Notre Dame. Said Titan Coach Augie Garrido: “The Upper Deck Tournament brings the best high school teams here, and now we have something like that at the college level. It’s good for baseball in Orange County.” . . . Mate Borgogno, an infielder on Fullerton’s 1992 College World Series team, is now the baseball coach at Los Altos High, and Rich Gonzales, the left fielder on that team, is an assistant baseball and football coach at Diamond Bar High. . . . Jeff Maes (126 pounds) will take a 24-5 record and Christian Holiday (158) will take a 24-8 record into this weekend’s Pacific-10 Conference wrestling championships at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. . . . Shayla Bradshaw had an outstanding week, scoring 43 points to lead the Titan women’s basketball team to victories over Nevada and UC Santa Barbara. . . . Heather Killeen, one of the Big West Conference’s top distance runners, will miss at least the first half of the track season because of a strained tendon in her hip, an injury she suffered at the end of the 1993 cross-country season.