COLLEGE BASEBALL : Fans Have Technical Difficulties

The score was tied, 6-6, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and Cal State Fullerton’s Jeff Poltorak had just about stretched it to the limit.

That was as far as the extension cord went. From Poltorak’s office inside Titan Gym to a portable radio stationed on a folding table outside, the extension cord was a lifeline for a small gathering of Titan baseball fans trying their best to follow the action from the NCAA South Regional at Baton Rouge, La.

“Not exactly the strongest feed I ever heard,” said Poltorak, Fullerton’s sports promotions coordinator. “I couldn’t get anything inside. I had to move the antenna outside to get a better signal.”

That’s because the Titans were down to their third-string radio station for Thursday morning’s playoff opener against Northeast Louisiana. KORG, the Anaheim station that used to broadcast Fullerton football games, was booked until 3 p.m. with Korean language programming. KMNY, the Titan basketball radio network, is all business news until 6 p.m.--and then it’s exciting Class-A minor-league baseball from Rancho Cucamonga.

Only an all-out scramble by Mel Franks, the Fullerton sports information director who doubles as play-by-play announcer, secured air time on low-wattage KBPK, the Fullerton College radio station, with its transmitter based in Buena Park. The signal, according to Franks, “barely gets to the 57 Freeway.”

Which means, the signal barely gets to the campus of Cal State Fullerton.

But by moving outdoors, and experimenting with a wide array of antenna angles, Poltorak eventually was able to pull it in. Titan baseball was on the air--a momentous achievement that prompted women’s basketball Coach Debbie Ayres to push her desk outside so she could listen while she worked and attracted a huddle of about 20 students with regional finals as well as semester finals on their minds.

Patty Sexton, the athletic department’s ticket manager, passed the innings shuttling from radio side to her office telephone, providing updates for fans unfortunate enough to reside outside the reception range of KBPK.

Sexton estimated she received “at least 50 phone calls during the game, plus voice mail. Most of them were, ‘I thought you said the game was on the radio.’ I had to tell them it was--just not on a strong signal.”

Following Titan baseball--it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.

And this week, two Fullerton teams are competing for College World Series championships. The men are in Baton Rouge, top-ranked and attempting to qualify for their fourth World Series in six years, and the women are in Oklahoma City, one round into the softball World Series.

This is quite a parlay for Cal State Commuter Campus. But finals week is under way, graduation is scheduled for the weekend and the student parking lot is scarred with skid marks from cars hustling off to part-time jobs. Who has had the time, or the inclination, to pay attention?

Poltorak maintains that “there are interested people out there. I think the students are pretty excited. Obviously, they haven’t reacted the same way UCLA did when the basketball team won the national championship. Nobody’s stopping cars in the street . . .

“But what we’ve done is something that’s not seen very often. If this had been done in basketball--you remember UConn, when it had both the No. 1 men’s and women’s teams in the nation? ESPN came out and did a profile on UConn. We don’t get that with baseball or softball.

“Our baseball team has been No. 1 most of the season and our softball team has been in the top five all year, but we don’t get that kind of coverage. Locally, Channel 5 News did a piece on women’s softball. UCLA softball. They aired it twice.”

Out of sight, out of mind, but still in the tournament--that has long been the Titan battle cry. Fullerton baseball Coach Augie Garrido notes that on ESPN’s NCAA playoff pairings show, “we were the only team that had no [video] footage. ‘Yes, Cal State Fullerton’s No. 1 and, honest to God, they do play!’ ”

And why no footage?

“No one televises our games,” is Franks’ simple and unassailable rationale.

To watch the Titans, one must do so in person. But to do so this week, one must book passage to Louisiana or Oklahoma. Not many have, because at pay-your-way Titan Tech, it’s tough booking passage when both pants pockets are pulled inside out.

Franks reports that only 37 Fullerton boosters followed the baseball team to Baton Rouge. “Each visiting team gets 50 tickets,” Franks said, “and I had to return 13.”

Host LSU, just for comparison’s sake, sold 5,000 all-tournament tickets at $35 apiece.

“It’s unfortunate they put us in a regional so far away,” Franks said. “If they put us in Fresno, we’d probably have a few hundred fans drive up.”

To make local matters worse, the Titans’ first three games in Baton Rouge are scheduled to start at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 9 a.m., Pacific Time. Sports bars around Cal State Fullerton couldn’t be happier. As Franks observes, “It’s kind of hard to get fired up at 9 a.m. for a baseball game.”

So the Titans trudge onward, unwatched and unnoticed if not unloved, same as always. In case the news didn’t reach you, Fullerton beat Northeast Louisiana on an error in the bottom of the ninth, 7-6. Rumor has it the Titans play again today, so if you’re driving around Knott’s Berry Farm, say, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon . . .

One final note:

On the Titans’ first night in Baton Rouge, equipment manager Cliff Hatter booked a team dinner a popular local eatery, T J Ribs, renowned for housing the Heisman Trophy of former LSU great Billy Cannon. The reservation was made well in advance, the Titans arrive on time, the team bus pulls into the parking lot . . . and T J Ribs is totally dark. Lights out, yellow tape across the doorway, police cars milling about in front.

“A fire gutted the place,” Franks said. “They had it on the news that night. The Heisman Trophy was saved, but they had to close the place for four to six weeks. I hope it’s not an omen for the trip.”

Then again, why not? When you’re a Titan, being blacked out, shipped out and burned out is the only way to travel.