COLLEGE WORLD SERIES : Titans Take Stroll Through Park

You know what they say here: It’s tough to beat a good team by 10 runs twice in a row.

And so Tennessee, determined to avenge an 11-1 bludgeoning by Cal State Fullerton on Monday, returned to the College World Series Thursday afternoon with a fresh outlook, a new resolve, a clean slate, a good night’s rest, a brand new day . . . and lost to the Titans, 11-0.

It’s a good thing this isn’t a triple-elimination tournament or Tennessee and Fullerton would no doubt run into each other again and we’d be dealing in negative integers.

How does Fullerton 11, Tennessee -1 sound?

Altogether plausible, if you’ve been keeping up with this College World Series.

Fullerton is in the national championship game, a feat it has managed three times before, but never, in Augie Garrido’s dream of dreams, has the route looked anything like this.

The Titans are 3-0 after spotting Stanford a 3-0 lead in their opener--and then rallying to outscore the opposition, 28-3.

The Titans are in the World Series final for the second time in four years after obliterating the second-winningest team in the history of SEC baseball, 22-1, in back-to-back games.

The Titans are in the World Series final with a World Series team batting average of .385, a World Series team earned-run average of 2.00 and fully fit and rested pitching staff to throw at the unlucky survivor of today’s Miami-USC elimination match. Let’s see: Ted Silva (17-1) starts Saturday’s game on six days’ rest. Jon Ward (10-3), coming in with four days’ rest, is available for middle relief. And Mark Kotsay (10 saves, 0.29 ERA) can close, having last pitched a week ago.

“We have the advantage,” Garrido offered after Thursday’s game.

And Mutual of Omaha has a wild kingdom. The Titans, who normally grind through these things on the belly of the losers’ bracket, dragging their throbbing pitching arms into the last weekend, have led such a charmed existence here, they probably think they’ve died and gone to USC. Fullerton finds itself in the final with the best pitching, the best hitting, the best record and the best player, regardless of hardware Tennessee’s Todd Helton has stockpiled. Kotsay is hitting .583 in this tournament--only 270 points higher than Dick Howser Award winner Helton.

Is there an Achilles’ heel?

Just one. Garrido’s. The right one, still bound in a cast that continues to prevent Garrido from jumping for joy.

So, he limps for joy, puttering around Rosenblatt Stadium in his midget golf cart and hobbling into postgame interview sessions on crutches.

Surprisingly, Tennessee Coach Rod Delmonico walked into the same room without any assistance, despite displaying obvious symptoms of battle fatigue. The following quotes were lifted from Delmonico’s Thursday press conference. Judge for yourself: Are these the mutterings of a clear-headed individual?

“The juggernaut from Cal State Fullerton.”

“David and Goliath.”

“We just couldn’t get them out.”

“Heck, they lost only nine ballgames all year. I kind of would like to know how they lost those nine, the way they’ve played here.”

Yes, whenever Fullerton and Tennessee meet on the field of athletic endeavor, Fullerton traditionally assumes the role of Goliath.

“They just blow people away,” Delmonico said in between long, deep breaths. “They’re an unbelievable team.”

Garrido will give Delmonico that much. Here Garrido sits with a 56-9 ballclub--top-ranked in the nation, wearing down its bat supply to thin aluminum nubs--and he looks around and he shrugs and he says, “I don’t know how the hell this happened.”

A rebuilding year at Fullerton, that’s what 1995 was supposed to be.

“I thought this was a two-year team,” Garrido said. “I honestly did not think it was good enough. It isn’t fast enough. It isn’t quick enough. I talked to my two recruiters during the second week of practice and I told them, ‘This won’t do. This isn’t good enough.’ ”

The Titans Garrido first inspected last fall “didn’t have much team speed. We had nothing going at second base. Who was going to play third? We were looking for a center fielder. Five out of six pitchers, we didn’t know anything about. I didn’t see a leadoff hitter. We didn’t have anyone in the No. 2 hole.”

Anything on the plus of the ledger?

“Attitude,” Garrido said. “I wrote that word down. I can show it to you--it’s still in my top desk drawer. This team has attitude . . .

“You saw D.C. Olsen go to second base on a [dropped] pop fly today. He can’t run. It comes down to attitude. Who would you rather have--a fast guy or a guy who tries hard?

“An adult’s mentality tends to build fences around young people. We limit them with the goals we set for them. This year, I’ve learned more about what can be accomplished by young people when given the opportunity, and it’s impressive.”

The Titans, for instance, showed Garrido how to cope with their lack of natural foot speed. Solution: Hit a lot of home runs. Brian Loyd and Tony Martinez sent two more screaming into a cold crosswind Thursday, bringing the team total to 79 in 65 games. Loyd’s was a grand slam, giving Fullerton two bases-loaded home runs in as many World Series games.

Rebuild?

When you make Rosenblatt Stadium sound like a construction site, with aluminum bats impersonating jackhammers and walls being crunched, yes, rebuild is one way to put it.