COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Titans in Fine Shape After Sweeping the Aggies

As far as Coach Augie Garrido is concerned, his Cal State Fullerton baseball team has accomplished about all it could in the regular season.

“There are only a couple of things you can do . . . win the conference championship and get your team in position for an at-large berth in the NCAA playoffs, and we’ve done both,” Garrido said.

The Titans, who clinched the Big West regular-season title Saturday, completed a three-game sweep of conference rival New Mexico State, 7-0, Sunday at Titan Field in front of 962. The crowd included one of Fullerton’s most well-known alums, actor-director Kevin Costner.

Fullerton, 45-9 and ranked No. 2 in the nation, finished 18-3 in the conference and can now look to the Big West postseason tournament, which begins Friday at Blair Field in Long Beach. The top-seeded Titans are scheduled to meet fourth-seeded Nevada Las Vegas at 3:05 p.m.; Long Beach State faces third-seeded Nevada at 7:05.

The tournament will decide the conference’s automatic berth in NCAA regional play, even though Fullerton appears assured of at least an-large spot. The Titans close out the regular season Tuesday at San Diego in a recent rescheduling of a rained out game.

Garrido will undergo surgery today at Anaheim Memorial Hospital to repair an Achilles’ tendon that ruptured in a pregame drill at Cal State Northridge last Wednesday. Garrido expects to be back with the Titans for the tournament, although he might miss Tuesday’s game.

Garrido said he was pleased the Titans gathered more momentum with their sixth consecutive victory after losing twice at Wichita State with second-level pitching and in the first game at Nevada.

“It was a good weekend,” Garrido said. “Our players stayed focused and played well, but I don’t think anything about this weekend tells us about next weekend. Everything now depends on a series of short series. From our standpoint, a whole new season starts next Friday.”

Pitcher Ted Silva ran his record to 13-1 Sunday, yielding only three hits in six innings and striking out three. Mark Chavez pitched the final three innings, allowing only one hit. Associate head coach George Horton decided not to take any chances with Silva, who was bothered by what was regarded as a minor muscle strain in his back in his warm-up.

“I almost didn’t send him out there at all, but he said he thought he would be fine,” Horton said. “I asked him if he wanted to come out at the end of the fifth, but he said he wanted to stay in. It stiffened up a little in the sixth and he was ready to come out then.”

The Titans scored two runs in the first off Aggie starter Kevin McCoy after two outs. Mark Kotsay and Jeremy Giambi had consecutive doubles to account for one run, and Giambi scored on Joe Fraser’s single.

Fullerton picked up another run in the second when Jack Jones singled, advanced on a sacrifice and wild pitch and scored on an error. Jones’ two-run homer, his second of the season, provided the Titans two runs in the third.

Fullerton added two in the fourth on a base hit by Robert Matos, two bunt singles by Giambi and Brian Loyd and a throwing error by the Aggie catcher on a double steal.

Matos had two hits in three trips to the plate after replacing C.J. Ankrum, who struck out in the first. “C.J. was pulled out for a purpose,” Garrido said. “He’s a good player and an important player for us, but I asked him before the game not to let things bother him. After he struck out, he looked whipped. It was a message to the whole team as much as anything.”

In another Big West Conference game:

Long Beach State 9, Nevada Las Vegas 0--Rocky Biddle, a freshman right-hander, threw a one-hitter as host Long Beach (30-19-1, 16-5) won its ninth consecutive game.

Biddle (4-1) also matched his season-high in strikeouts with 14.

Long Beach scored eight runs in the sixth to open a 9-0 lead. Jeff Tagliaferri had a two-run home run and Tim Falsken and Kirk Pierce had two-run singles in the sixth.