Despite New Faces, Titan Baseball Should Still Be a Big Hit

Dante Powell and Jeff Ferguson have departed for pro baseball. So have pitchers Dan Ricabal and Mike Parisi. But the beat goes on at Cal State Fullerton, where the Titans are regrouping after last season’s NCAA regional championship and College World Series.

The Titans will have 18 new faces, either high school recruits or college transfers, when the team starts fall session workouts Oct. 3.

The biggest name among the newcomers is outfielder C.J. Ankrum of Saratoga. He was drafted in the ninth round by the Dodgers but decided to delay his pro career to play for the Titans.

“He’s probably the highest profile of the new players,” said George Horton, the Titans’ associate head coach. “We think he has a chance to become one of the best hitters in college baseball right away.

“He hit over .650 and had 15 home runs during his senior season. He also hit well in all-star games against the toughest competition available, so we think he’ll make the jump pretty easily.”

Two other recruits were drafted in the late rounds. Outfielder Matt Kastelic of Orange played for Rancho Santiago last season and was picked in the 42nd round by Philadelphia. Second baseman Nakia Hill of San Diego Crawford went in the 46th round to St. Louis.

Two other players who committed to Fullerton, however, decided to sign pro contracts. Pitcher Derrin Ebert of Hesperia High signed with Atlanta, and Randy Vickers of Glendale College went with Seattle.

The newcomers include seven pitchers. Six of them have pitched either at community colleges or at four-year schools.

Among the transfers is Todd Singelyn, who was at Arizona two years after playing in high school at Whittier. “He didn’t have a great season last year at Arizona for whatever reason, but he had a good summer in the Cape Cod League with an ERA around 2.90,” Horton said.

Other new pitchers are Tom Dixon, a transfer from Arkansas Little Rock, Steve Cardona of Delta College in Stockton, Mark Chavez of Harbor College, Tom Dillon of College of Marin (Calif.) and Danny Reeser of Long Beach College. Chavez and Dillon were All-State community college players. The seventh new pitcher, Scott Hild, played last season for Esperanza.

Matt Wagner is the lone returning starting pitcher, although highly regarded relief pitcher Ted Silva also is back.

“We need to have someone emerge from among that group of new pitchers,” Horton said. “But we think the possibilities of that happening are pretty good.”

Sophomore Brian Loyd is expected to replace Bret Hemphill at catcher, but two high school recruits, Mike Brambilla of Brea-Olinda and Mike Wright of San Jose Bellarmine Prep will be challenging.

Other recruits include infielders Joe Fraser of Huntington Beach and Rancho Santiago College, Ruben Hernandez of Cal Baptist, and David Pruett of Diablo Valley College.

The other new outfielders are Steve Chatham of Vista High, Skip Kiil of Merced College and Ted Persell of East Los Angeles College.

“When Dante and Fergie came in, we were sure they were going to be impact players right away,” Horton said. “But there are quite a few guys among this group who can go either way. It appears to be a good group as a whole, though.”

*

John Easterbrook attended his first Fullerton sports event as the university’s newly appointed athletic director last weekend when the Titan soccer team played in a tournament at Fresno State, where Easterbrook has been the senior associate athletic director for nine years.

“I had been kidding our events person all week about making sure the box for the visiting athletic director in the stadium was in good shape for the weekend,” Easterbrook said. “I told him we wanted nothing but the best for this guy.”

Easterbrook won’t officially begin work at Fullerton until Sept. 20.

“I’m really looking forward to getting down there, but there’s been a lot I’ve had to do to finish up here,” Easterbrook said by telephone from Fresno. “Until they can hire someone to replace me, there will be three people in the department sharing my job on an interim basis, and I’ve had to go over quite a few things with each of them, as well as take care of the normal things associated with a move.”

*

The Titan soccer team tied Seattle Pacific, 2-2, and defeated Illinois State, 3-1, in the Gold Rush Tournament at Fresno State, and Coach Al Mistri remains encouraged on the heels of the 2-1-1 showing in the first two weeks of the season.

“Seattle Pacific is the defending national champion in Division II, so we knew they were a good team,” Mistri said. “But we had enough scoring chances against them to win three games, much less one.”

Mistri was pleased with the play of Demian Brown and Eddie Soto, in particular, and he felt freshman Joey Franchino continued to make a good early impression.

He also has been pleased with Mike Kornock’s early play as the replacement for graduated star Mike Ammann. “Talk about pressure, replacing someone like Mike, but he’s done admirably,” Mistri said. Kornock has had six goals against him, but has seven saves in four games.

The Titans, ranked 15th in the nation in this week’s Soccer America rankings, play in the Reebok Invitational at Burlington, Vt., this weekend against New Hampshire and Vermont.

Titan Notes

Dante Powell, now with the San Francisco Giants, had a sparkling first season in pro baseball. Playing for Everett, Wash., in the Class A rookie league, Powell hit .309 with 51 hits in 165 at-bats for 41 games. He had five home runs and 25 runs batted in. He stole 27 bases in 28 attempts. He was called up late in the season to San Jose in the California League, where he had two hits in four at-bats. Powell was back on the Fullerton campus Monday and said he plans to play in the Arizona Instructional League. . . . Former Titan Mike Parisi was chosen as the Florida Marlins’ minor league pitcher of the month for August. Parisi was 4-1 with an 1.86 earned-run average in six starts during the month. He finished his first pro season with a 5-5 record and 2.99 ERA, recovering from a slow start.