COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Titans Show Promise in Winning Series Against No. 1 Stanford

A new college baseball season is off to a promising start for Cal State Fullerton.

The Titans, who have advanced to the College World Series twice in the past three years, played their first three-game series against a nationally prominent opponent and came out of it with two victories.

Fullerton (3-1) won the rubber game with No. 1 ranked Stanford, 5-3, Sunday at Fullerton behind the hitting of first baseman D.C. Olsen and the solid-if-not-flashy pitching of Ted Silva and Mark Kotsay. Olsen hit a home run and a two-run double, and Silva won his second game of the season although he gave up 10 hits. Kotsay, who came in from his center field position to relieve in the eighth, picked up his first save of the year.

“Our offense has gotten off to a faster start than we expected,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said. The Titans scored 26 runs in the three games, although they lost, 11-10, on Saturday.

It marked the fourth time in the past four years the Titans have won the traditional early season series between the teams.

After two high scoring games, Silva turned in a pitching performance more typical of what Titan fans have come to expect between the teams in the past three seasons. He struck out four and walked one in 7 1/3 innings.

The Titans scored four runs in five innings off highly regarded Stanford sophomore starter Jason Middlebrook.

“I thought both starters pitched pretty well today,” Stanford Coach Mark Marquess said. “The difference was that their guy got the big pitches when he needed them and our guy didn’t. We had a couple of good chances to score when we didn’t.”

Stanford (3-2) got off to good start. Silva gave up a bases-empty home run to Cale Carter in the first. The damage could have been worse. Steve Carver and A.J. Hinch, who had four hits in the game, followed with singles, but Carver was thrown out by Tony Miranda trying to take third and Silva struck out Chris Clark.

Stanford added a run in the third. Joe Kilburg singled and Carter walked before Hinch’s RBI single. But Carter was thrown out trying to take third, ending the inning.

The Titans tied the score at 2-2 in the third. Kotsay, who singled and advanced to third on one of Joe Fraser’s three hits, scored on Middlebrook’s wild pitch. Olsen’s two-out double to deep left brought in Fraser with the second run.

Fullerton scored again in the fourth. The Titans loaded the bases on a walk, fielder’s choice, hit batsman and Fraser’s single, and Jack Jones scored on Jeremy Giambi’s sacrifice fly.

Olsen made it 4-2 with his home run in the fifth, and Fullerton picked up another run in the seventh when Brian Loyd tripled and Mike Lamb doubled just inside third base. That ended Middlebrook’s day.

Silva gave up two quick hits in the eighth and the Titans brought in Kotsay to pitch. He gave up a single to Troy Kent, scoring one run, but got out of the inning without further trouble.

“I felt that was about the right time for me to come out,” said Silva, who has moved into a starting role after being the team’s top relief pitcher last season. “I felt strong most of the way, though. Starting is an adjustment for me and I just have to build up to it.”

In another nonconference game:

Washington State 9, Long Beach State 7--Jason Minicia, a junior from Rancho Santiago College, hit a two-run home run to give host Long Beach (2-1) a 7-4 lead. But Washington State (1-3) rallied for three in the seventh and two more in the eighth.