‘Unsung Hero’ for Georgia Tech Belts Out the Titans’ Title Hopes

A pair of aces squared off before a near full house in Rosenblatt Stadium Wednesday night. But long after the marquee starting pitchers had departed, a one-of-a-kind shortstop punched Cal State Fullerton’s ticket home from the College World Series.

The Titans will always remember Nomar Garciaparra, a 6-foot, 162-pound junior from Bellflower St. John Bosco High School, and not just because of his catchy name, which is his father Ramon’s name spelled backward.

A first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox and a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, Garciaparra sent Titan reliever Ted Silva’s fastball in the top of the 12th inning deep into the mist hovering above Omaha.

It finally landed several rows back in the left-field bleachers, well beyond the outstretched arm of Fullerton outfielder Brian King, and gave the Yellow Jackets a 3-2 lead they somehow retained in the bottom of the 12th.

The Titans had speedster Dante Powell on third with no outs but couldn’t push the tying run across against reliever Chris Myers, who struck out Sal Mancuso, retired D.C. Olsen on an infield pop and got King to fly out to center.

When center fielder Jay Payton clutched the final out, Georgia Tech players rushed the mound to celebrate a gut-wrenching victory that gave them a berth in Saturday’s national championship game against either Oklahoma or Arizona State. The Yellow Jackets hope to become the first team since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in their first trip to Omaha.

The Titans, meanwhile, were left in a fog. They had staged several dramatic comebacks, most recently at the NCAA Midwest I Regional at Stillwater, Okla., to get to this point, and they simply didn’t know how to react when they fell short.

Designated hitter Adam Millan, tears streaming down his face, buried his head in his hands as Powell and Coach Augie Garrido tried to console him. Other players just sat on the bench, dazed and confused.

“They’re devastated because they don’t believe something like this could happen,” Garrido said. “They have the mentality that they’re indestructible, and all of a sudden, something like this jolts you. You see the fly ball go out there, you know he’s going to catch it, and it’s kind of a helpless feeling.”

Titan pitcher Mike Parisi, who gave up two runs on seven hits in seven innings and battled Georgia Tech’s Brad Rigby to a draw, knows the feeling all too well. He was in the same dugout and clubhouse, on the third-base side of Rosenblatt, when Fullerton lost to Pepperdine, 3-2, in the 1992 national championship game.

“I’m in shock,” Parisi said. “We have so many guys who care so much about this team. The hardest part is not losing, but knowing that so many guys aren’t going to put on the Titan uniform again.

“There was a feeling in the clubhouse that was like . . . wow, I’ve never been inside a room like that, with those emotions going on. It’s sad, but we shouldn’t hang our heads. We gave the best we had.”

Wednesday’s loss was hauntingly familiar to the Pepperdine game, and not only because of the score. The deciding run in the 1992 game also came when a diminutive shortstop--Pepperdine’s Eric Ekdahl--hit a homer into the left-field bleachers for the third run.

But Garciaparra was not nearly as improbable a hero as Ekdahl, Pepperdine’s No. 9 batter who hadn’t homered until the final game. Garciaparra’s teammates have come to expect such heroics from their shortstop, who is batting .428 with 15 homers and 72 RBIs as a leadoff hitter.

Garciaparra, the first-team All-American, was selected outstanding player of the Midwest II Regional after batting .500 with two homers and 10 RBIs, and Parisi said he’s the toughest out in a lineup that includes All-Americans Jason Varitek (.423, 16 homers, 85 RBIs) and Jay Payton (.435, 20 homers, 102 RBIs).

“I can’t begin to describe how much he means to the team,” Georgia Tech right fielder Matt Saier said. “Varitek is the captain, but Nomar is our unsung hero. Whenever we need a clutch hit or to get someone on, he always comes through. It seems like 80% of his hits figure prominently in the game.”

None of his hits this season was bigger than Wednesday’s homer, which came on a 2-0 Silva fastball that was down the heart of the plate.

“Coach (Danny Hall) could have given me the take sign, but he said, ‘Look for one spot,’ ” Garciaparra said. “He happened to throw it in that spot, so I was pretty pleased.”

So was Garciaparra’s father, a lithographic artist who was at the game.

“I always remember the smile on my dad’s face when I hit a home run to win a game in Little League,” said Garciaparra, the 12th pick in last week’s draft. “He had the same smile on his face tonight, and that felt good.”