COLLEGE WORLD SERIES NOTEBOOK : Injury Limits Powell in Tournament Opener

Dante Powell is definitely not the same player as he was before he injured his hamstring in the NCAA regional championship game Monday.

“It’s really rough to not be at 100% for something like this,” the Titan outfielder said after Cal State Fullerton lost to Georgia Tech, 2-0, Friday. “When you’re the leadoff hitter, it’s your job to be the catalyst for the team, but it hurts when you’re not able to steal and do things like that.”

Powell grounded out three times and popped up once.

“The leg was tender,” Powell said. “It hurt some, but I fought through it. The two corners of the outfield picked me up on defense. I told them that they were probably going to have to do that. I couldn’t run the way I normally would down the line.”

Powell thought Georgia Tech’s Brad Rigby pitched well in shutting the Titans down on three hits, but Powell pointed to another factor. “We were too undisciplined at the plate in this game,” Powell said. “We’ll need to do better than that. Cal State Fullerton never does anything the easy way, though. We’ll come back.”

*

The Titans’ Mike Parisi gave up the home run to Georgia Tech’s Michael Sorrow in the seventh inning on a fastball.

Sorrow said he guessed right on the pitch. “In my first at-bat, he came in on me. Then he threw me a first-pitch slider, and I was guessing fastball all the way,” he said.

“We’re taught to get ahead of the hitter and I wanted to do that with the fastball,” Parisi said.

Parisi said he felt strong in the game and was fully recovered from the NCAA regional last week. “I was as fresh as I’ve ever been,” he said. “That wasn’t a problem.”

*

Arizona State comes into the tournament with a lot of emotion about Coach Jim Brock. Brock, here for the 13th time as a coach, has cancer.

A portion of his colon has been removed along with a substantial part of his liver. He has lost 40 pounds and has jaundice.

He turned almost all the coaching duties this season to his assistants, Bill Kenneberg and John Pierson. They ran the team with Brock as an adviser.

*

Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido is one of three coaches in the field whose teams have won two national championships.

He has seen some unexpected things happen before in Omaha, and he’s not conceding anything after his team’s loss to Georgia Tech. “People who appear to be sure-fire winners will get beat, and someone will do something to defy the odds,” Garrido said. “That’s the fun of all this.”

Two other coaches here in addition to Garrido have won two championships. Skip Bertman of Louisiana State coached teams to titles in 1991 and 1993. Jim Brock of Arizona State had championship teams in 1977 and 1981.

Larry Cochell is back in the World Series with Oklahoma. No other coach has brought teams from three schools to the World Series. He also coached Oral Roberts in 1978 and Fullerton in 1988 and 1990.

*

Matt Wagner, who will be the Titans’ starting pitcher Sunday, was chosen to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers All-America first team this week. Parisi was named to the second team.

Second baseman Jeff Ferguson was picked on Baseball America’s second team.

Georgia Tech catcher Jason Varitek was chosen as Baseball America’s college player of the year. He went into Friday’s game against the Titans batting .432. His teammate, shortstop Normar Garciaparra, also was a first-team choice.

World Series Notes

More than 100 fans supporting Fullerton were on hand for the Titan loss to Georgia Tech. Among them was Ed Parisi, whose son was the Titan starter. He said he was pleased to hear that his son was drafted by the Florida Marlins. Parisi was picked in the sixth round. “I think he’ll have more opportunity with one of the new teams,” he said. “He thought he would go somewhere between the fifth and fifth rounds. It was just a little later than what we expected.” . . . The NCAA has agreed to keep the College World Series in Omaha through 2000. . . . Miami has the best won-lost record of the teams in the World Series at 49-12.