Top-Ranked Titans Earning Rave Reviews So Far

Cal State Fullerton’s baseball team is making a good impression on rival coaches.

It’s no wonder the Titans have moved into the No. 1 spot in the polls conducted by Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America this week after winning the Anaheim Hilton & Towers Classic at Titan Field over the weekend.

“Fullerton always has been the type of team that puts the pressure on the opposing team and makes you execute,” said Pepperdine Coach Pat Harrison, whose team lost to the Titans in the tournament’s opening game. “They’re doing that very well. Their players all play their roles and execute well.”

Notre Dame’s first-year coach, Paul Mainieri, also was impressed.

“They have good power, good defense and their pitching is pretty solid for this stage of the season,” he said. “They’re an outstanding team, no doubt about that.”

The Titans defeated Pepperdine, 7-3, with Tim Dixon (3-0) giving up only three hits in six innings. But he walked six. “He definitely caused us problems,” Harrison said. “He indicated to us he should be one of their best pitchers. He has a good breaking ball.”

Jon Ward (2-1) gave up three runs in the third inning against Notre Dame, but Mainieri said he was impressive. “He was low in the strike zone with good movement on his pitches,” Mainieri said.

The Titans’ top pitcher, Ted Silva, had trouble at times against Texas, giving up 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings, but still got his fifth victory of the season without a loss.

The Titans’ hitting, however, has been a big factor in their success. Fullerton (14-2) has scored 133 runs, compared to 66 for the opposition.

Texas Coach Cliff Gustafson was particularly impressed with the Titans’ hitting.

“We threw our best pitcher (J.D. Smart) against them and they get four home runs off him,” Gustafson said. “I also watched them against Pepperdine, and I was very impressed. They’re a typical Augie Garrido team in that they’re sound fundamentally and sound defensively, but I was really impressed with their hitting.”

Garrido has been happy about that.

“I think we’re probably hitting the ball better at this stage than we were last year,” he said. “I was pleased with the way the team stayed steady and consistent during the tournament.”

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Fullerton’s softball team continues to show its hitting strength.

The Titans (9-3) won two games against San Diego Sunday, 17-0 and 10-0, on the mercy rule. They also defeated Oklahoma State, 10-3.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve had a team hit the ball this well,” Coach Judi Garman said.

The big difference has been the addition of shortstop Julie Williams and outfielder Senetha Thomas. Williams is a freshman from Dublin, Calif., and Thomas a junior transfer from Central Arizona College.

“They certainly deserve a lot of credit for where we are right now,” Garman said. “Thomas hit a couple of home runs Sunday that you knew were home runs as soon as they left the bat. Their enthusiasm for the game has been a boost to our other players as well.”

Garman recruited Thomas without ever seeing her play.

“Her community college coach called me and asked me if I wanted a player who could give me 15 home runs this season,” Garman said. “He told me she was from Anaheim, too, and wanted to come home, so it worked out well for us. We had the advantage of knowing about her when some other schools didn’t because she was out a great deal of last season with illness.”

Williams was highly recruited after several coaches, including Garman, saw her playing in a summer tournament in Boulder, Colo. “I was in a line with a lot of people,” Garman said. “It came down to us and Fresno State. She turned down a visit to Michigan and signed with us.”

Thomas is hitting .452 with 11 runs batted in and Williams .424 with nine RBIs.

The Titans will play host to a four-team tournament Saturday and Sunday with Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Diego State in the field. Fullerton is favored; Northridge is not nearly as strong as a year ago when the Matadors reached the NCAA final.

The championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.

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The victory by the women’s basketball team Sunday against UC Santa Barbara gave Titan Coach Deborah Ayres some renewed hope that her team might be a threat in the Big West tournament.

Fullerton’s 89-86 victory dropped the Gauchos out of a first-place tie with New Mexico State.

But she also was disappointed by a 74-71 loss to Long Beach State at home a night earlier.

“We match up with some teams in the conference better than others,” Ayres said. “We match up better with Santa Barbara than we do with New Mexico State. And Long Beach State is so big and strong and athletic . . . far more than we are.”

But the difference between Saturday’s loss and Sunday’s victory may have been as simple as guard Shayla Bradshaw being off one night and on the other.

“Bradshaw had a great finish in the Santa Barbara game,” Ayres said. “We were down by 11, but she made some good decisions passing the ball and was 7 for 11 from the field. She was only 2 for 18 against Long Beach and that was totally unusual for her to shoot like that. Her confidence was shot in that game and she couldn’t do anything about it.”

The Titans close their regular season Saturday at UC Irvine.

Titan Notes

The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball coaching position has been posted, as Athletic Director John Easterbrook indicated it would before the season began. The university will be taking applications for the next two weeks and a search committee appointed by Easterbrook will meet for the first time Friday. Bob Hawking, who was hired on an interim basis for this season, said he plans to apply. . . . Texas baseball Coach Cliff Gustafson will bring his team back to the Anaheim Hilton & Towers Classic in 1997. “Getting him here was the result of a lot of begging over the years,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said with a laugh. “But now he says he definitely wants to come back two years from now.” The 1997 field also will include Miami and Stanford. . . . The Titans will enter six wrestlers in the Pacific 10 Championships at Oregon State this weekend: Can Tran at 118 pounds, Shane Kim at 126, George Mercado at 134, Darryl Christian at 142, Jason Roberts at 150 and Johnathan Dy Reyes at 177. Only Tran (5-4) and Roberts (13-8) have winning records this season.