Titans Expose Stanford Pitching

Stanford began its three-game baseball series at Cal State Fullerton last weekend with most of its position players, and the strength of its pitching staff, returning from last season.

A year ago, Stanford finished 36-23, won the Pacific 10 Conference championship with a 21-9 record and advanced to the NCAA Central Regional at Texas before being eliminated by eventual national champion Oklahoma.

When it came time to rate the top teams this season, Stanford appeared as deserving of the preseason No. 1 spot as any team.

Based on pitching alone, Stanford looked formidable.

So what happened in the Cardinal’s first big series? The Titans racked up 26 runs in the three games and won the series, 2-1, with a team that lost many of its top players from the College World Series team that finished 47-16.

The Titans did it against three well-regarded pitchers. Fullerton had nine hits and four runs off starter Dan Reed in five innings Friday in an 11-9 victory, then nailed Saturday’s starter, Todd Bartels, for six hits and five runs, although the Titans lost, 11-10. On Sunday, Fullerton faced Jason Middlebrook, rated as the top sophomore prospect in the nation by Baseball America magazine. The Titans sent Middlebrook and his 95-m.p.h. fastball to the dugout with four runs on six hits in five innings. Fullerton won the final game, 5-3.

If that first major series is any indication, the Titans certainly should be able to hold their own offensively. But how effective they’ll be at stopping the opposition remains a major question.

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George Horton, the Titan associate head coach who handles the pitching for Coach Augie Garrido, wasn’t discouraged by the fact that his staff gave up 23 runs in the Stanford series.

The best effort came from junior Ted Silva, who had 13 saves as a reliever last season and has become the team’s top starter. “Ted has been there before in those tough situations against a good team,” Horton said. “Most of the other kids haven’t.”

Silva picked up two victories in the first week of the season. He earned the victory in the season opener against Cal Poly Pomona.

Horton believes Silva will continue to develop as a starter.

“For Ted to be a dominating guy, there are still things he needs to do,” Horton said. “For one thing, he needs to take one more step in his development and pitch to the other half of the plate. He needs to get the ball into the inside half at least some of the time, and mix it up more. He doesn’t seem to have the confidence right now throwing there, but he needs to do it in the interest of developing.”

Horton expects the entire pitching staff to continue developing. “We had a good, experienced staff last year and they gave up quite a few runs (15) in the series (against Stanford),” he said.

“I still think we’ll be fine. I think we can have six or seven guys who will be good enough.”

Garrido said the weekend was a good learning experience for his team.

“I think we’ll profit from some of the problems we had too, and that’s as important as anything,” he said. “We’ll develop a lot in this first month of the season, and we’ll continue to try a lot of different combinations and see how things work out.”

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Softball Coach Judi Garman also was pleased with her team’s fast start; the Titans opened the season with two victories at Cal State Northridge. In the finals of the NCAA Regional last season, they had been eliminated by the Matadors.

“That’s as well as I’ve seen us play early in the season in quite a while,” Garman said. “One of our big goals is to get off to a good start this season. It made it neat to do it at Northridge because we were playing very well there when we ended the season last year, and it seemed like we picked up where we left off.”

In the first game, a 5-3 victory, Northridge scored three unearned runs in one inning and the Titans came back to score three in the same inning. “I knew right then that this team has what it takes,” she said.

Freshman Brandi Isgar pitched a four-hitter in the second game, a 6-0 victory. “I think she showed she’s for real, and she’s going to do nothing but get better,” Garman said.

Another freshman, shortstop Julie Williams, had four hits in the two games. “She had everyone talking,” Garman said. “In addition to her hitting, she made one outstanding defensive play after another.”

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The Fullerton men’s basketball team goes back on the road this week for games against Nevada and Utah State and Coach Bob Hawking is hoping that might change the Titans’ fortunes after three consecutive losses.

Hawking has been particularly disappointed by the two most recent losses, 106-74 to New Mexico State and 69-53 to Nevada Las Vegas.

“It’s hard to figure how we could lose it in such a short time,” Hawking said. “There’s no identifiable reason why things have gone sour. It’s just frustrating the way we’ve been playing.”

The Titans are 3-6 at home and 3-7 on the road. They have shot 40.9% at home and 39.9% on the road. The Titans’ 40.4% field-goal average ranks ninth in the Big West.

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Titan Notes

The Titans’ 59-54 women’s basketball victory over Nevada Las Vegas Sunday was their first in Las Vegas. Fullerton is 8-10, 5-6 in the Big West. The Titans play at home Friday against San Jose State and Sunday against Hawaii. Center Koko Lahanas is averaging 26.3 points. . . . The wrestling team is at home for a 3 p.m. match Saturday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Jason Roberts has the best record at 13-7.