CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK / LON EUBANKS : Weather Clears in Time for Titans’ Finest to Take the Field

The sunny skies and warmer temperatures arrived just in time to signal the opening of the Cal State Fullerton baseball and softball seasons this week.

And that puts on display two of the school’s traditionally most successful programs.

Coach Augie Garrido’s baseball team, which opened its season Tuesday with a 7-1 victory over Cal Poly Pomona, will be quickly tested when Stanford arrives Friday for a three-game weekend series. Stanford, the preseason favorite in the Pac-10, is ranked No. 1 in the nation by Baseball America. The Titans are 15th.

Fullerton, 47-16 last season, won the NCAA Regional at Oklahoma State and advanced to the College World Series. Georgia Tech eliminated the Titans in the semifinals.

Coach Judi Garman’s softball team begins play Sunday at Cal State Northridge, which stopped the Titans last season in the finals of the NCAA Regional. Fullerton finished 35-29 after winning 18 of its last 22 games.

Both Fullerton teams have lost a top pitcher from last season.

The baseball team will be without Matt Wagner, who was ruled ineligible after an unspecified violation of NCAA rules. Wagner was the Big West Conference pitcher of the year in 1994 as a sophomore when he was 12-1 with a 2.66 earned-run average. Wagner has transferred to Lewis Clark College in Idaho, an NAIA school, and apparently will pitch there this season.

The softball team will be without pitcher Trinity Johnson, who switched to South Carolina to be closer to her family after her father was transferred to Tennessee. Johnson was 15-12 last season, but finished strong after going 5-10 in the first half of the season. She was the winning pitcher in the regional tournament elimination game against Washington, then had a two-hit shutout against Northridge.

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George Horton, Fullerton associate head coach who handles the pitchers for Garrido, settled on the starting rotation for the first week of the season.

Ted Silva, Jon Ward and Tim Dixon will begin as the team’s top three pitchers. Silva moves into the starting rotation after a season as the team’s top reliever. Silva had a 4-4 record with a 2.29 ERA and 13 saves.

Ward, who has been troubled in the past by injury problems, is “100% healthy now,” Horton said. “He’s thrown extremely well in the preseason.”

Horton is optimistic that Dixon, a transfer from Arkansas Little Rock who played in high school in San Jose, will have an immediate impact.

Horton, however, has been telling all the pitchers that there is room to grow. “I’ve reminded them about the fact that Wagner almost didn’t make the first road trip to Stanford last season, but he came on strong and look what happened with him last season,” Horton said.

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Garman also is optimistic that two newcomers will be able to fill the void from Johnson’s transfer. They are freshman Brandi Isgar from San Dimas High and junior Gabby Guerrero, who transferred from College of the Sequoias.

“Brandi throws as hard as Trinity did,” Garman said. “I think we’ll end up being stronger there than we were last year because we’ll have three pitchers who will be able to contribute this year.”

Jennifer Mortensen, the team’s top pitcher a year ago, is back for her senior season. Mortensen was 20-16 last year with a 1.96 ERA. She was a second-team All-Big West selection.

“But the two new pitchers are going to have to do the job for us,” Garman said. “Pitching is the key in our game, and they have to perform up to expectations.”

The Titans have seven regulars back, including All-Big West second baseman Monica Bagalayos, who hit .327 last season.

“I’m really excited about our potential,” Garman said. “I think we’ll be more like our teams of old with more power than what we had last year.”

Two other newcomers, freshman infielder Julie Williams from Dublin High and junior outfielder Senetha Thomas from Central Arizona Community College, are expected to give the Titans more power. Thomas is expected to move into the No. 4 spot in the batting order.

Garman also thinks first baseman Rose Garces can provide additional power. “Rose had an off-year last season, but she’s also capable of hitting with power,” Garman said.

Garman hopes her team can pick up where it left off with last season’s strong finish. “We had to play under pressure all the last half of the season last year, and we don’t want to be in that position again this year,” she said.

Fullerton won only seven of its first 20 games last season.

Notes

Koko Lahanas, the Big West women’s basketball scoring leader, ranks second in the nation with a 26-point average. The Titan women’s team plays at San Jose State Friday and at Nevada Las Vegas Sunday. . . . Heather Killeen has been chosen to the academic All-American team selected by the Intercollegiate Cross-Country Coaches Assn. . . . Dan Ricabal was named the 1994 baseball team’s most valuable pitcher and Jeff Ferguson the most valuable player at a recent team recognition dinner. Outfielder Dante Powell was chosen honorary captain. Outfielder-pitcher Mark Kotsay was most improved and catcher Bret Hemphill was honored for his defensive play.