CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK / LON EUBANKS : Garrido Hopes Baseball Team Has Heard Wake-Up Call

Cal State Fullerton baseball Coach Augie Garrido was disappointed with the Titans’ showing in the first two games of last weekend’s Big West series against Nevada, but he remains hopeful they will bounce back and finish well.

“We need to build on this series and let it serve as a wake-up call for us,” Garrido said. “What happened is history now, and our season is still out in front of us.”

Nevada, with the best hitting team in the Big West, overwhelmed the Titans’ strong pitching in the first two games. The Wolf Pack won, 5-2, last Friday and, 7-2, on Saturday before Fullerton rebounded to win, 8-0, Sunday behind pitcher Dan Ricabal’s three-hitter.

“We have 30 players, and on Friday they seemed to be in 30 different frames of mind,” Garrido said. “We didn’t execute well or play well in the first two games. It was hard for us to get back to playing well (on Sunday).”

Garrido, however, gave credit to Nevada. “They didn’t sneak up on us,” he said. “They’re good . . . and well-coached. We knew they could hit.”

Garrido felt the series underlined that the Titans can’t take their starting pitching for granted. The Wolf Pack got to Mike Parisi for nine hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings in the first game and then had eight hits and seven runs in six innings off Matt Wagner. Parisi fell to 9-3. It was Wagner’s first loss to go with 10 victories.

The bottom line, however, is that Nevada is in first place in the Big West at 11-4 and Fullerton is percentage points behind in second at 12-5. Long Beach State is 10-5.

Nevada has six conference games remaining, three at home this weekend against San Jose State and a three-game series at UC Santa Barbara the next weekend. Long Beach State has three games at Nevada Las Vegas and three at home against Pacific. Fullerton has a three-game series at New Mexico State this weekend and a possible makeup game from a rainout at Pacific if it has impact on the race.

The two losses cost Fullerton (36-10) the No. 1 spot in the national rankings. Baseball America dropped Fullerton to third behind Georgia Tech (35-10) and Florida State (40-13). Fullerton fell to seventh, one spot behind Nevada (34-8), in Collegiate Baseball’s rankings. Clemson (45-13) is ranked first and Georgia Tech second.

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The Titan softball team has found new life, and is rolling along with an 11-game winning streak after beating UC Santa Barbara, 9-1 and 3-1, on Sunday.

Winning three consecutive games from Hawaii, the conference leader, put Fullerton in high gear and the Titans haven’t slowed since. The surge has carried them to third place in the Big West with a 17-9 record, and they are only percentage points behind second-place Nevada Las Vegas (18-6). Hawaii leads at 22-6.

Jennifer Mortensen has been the winning pitcher in six of those games and Trinity Johnson has accounted for the other five victories. Mortensen is 17-14 with a 1.95 earned-run average. Johnson has moved up to 11-10 with a 2.20 ERA, and has a 0.65 ERA in her last six starts. Mortensen has a 1.41 ERA in her last nine appearances.

The Titans have five hitters over .300: Monica Bagalayos (.331), Jstone Vines (.330), Heidi Robertson (.321), Melissa Hadfield (.315) and Traci Fischer (.309). Robertson has hit .529 and Vines .464 in the past 11 games.

“I think the real difference in the team lately has been confidence,” Coach Judi Garman said. “Our team feels that good things are going to happen and they’re going to make them happen. We are a young team, and I think early in the season the players were afraid they were going to make mistakes, and that’s what they did.”

Fullerton plays doubleheaders at Long Beach State today and at Nevada Las Vegas Sunday.

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Fullerton’s Mike Tansley won the 3,000-meter steeplechase Sunday at the California-Nevada Collegiate track meet at UCLA, and Coach John Elders hopes Tansley will be able to qualify for the NCAA championships.

Tansley’s time of 8:56.28 was below the provisional NCAA qualifying time of 8:57 for the event. “That time doesn’t guarantee him a spot in the national meet, but I feel he’ll be able to make it,” Elders said. “I feel he can make it if he can run 8:52, and I think he should be able to run that.” The runners with the top 15 times qualify.

Tansley was surprised. “I had a wisdom tooth pulled last Wednesday and really wasn’t feeling that well,” he said. “I almost didn’t go to the meet.”

Now Tansley is optimistic about further improvement at the Big West Conference meet, May 13-14 at Las Cruces, N.M.

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The California State University system has begun the formal process of appealing the $1.35-million wrongful termination verdict awarded to former volleyball coach Jim Huffman in February.

CSU has hired the Irvine-based firm of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold to handle the appeal, which began with the April 22 filing of a notice to appeal and Monday’s filing of the Designation of the Record in Orange County Superior Court.

Jared Huffman, Jim’s brother and attorney, said the case would not go before an appellate judge until the end of 1994 or early 1995, at the earliest. The award earns 10% interest until the case is concluded.

Jared Huffman, whose firm was awarded $300,000 in attorneys fees and court costs, said the school system declined a recent settlement offer of $1.6 million.

“It’s a joke,” Huffman said of the appeal. “It’s a loser. They know it’s a loser and they’re doing it anyway. We’re ready to settle and save them money, and they have an appeal they can’t win. When it’s over, the judgment will be well over $2 million, and someone will have some explaining to do.”