Dixon Turns Disastrous Rehearsal Into Great Act : Baseball: Pitcher has horrible outing during intrasquad scrimmage but settles down for real show against Tennessee.

It wasn’t exactly a confidence-builder for Cal State Fullerton pitcher Tim Dixon.

As a warm-up for Thursday’s game against Tennessee, Dixon went to the mound to throw a little in an intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday.

“It was a disaster,” Dixon said, able to smile about it after his sparkling pitching effort in Thursday’s game in the College World Series. “I got two quick outs, and then all hell broke loose. And I couldn’t get the ball over the plate for a while, and gave up a couple of walks.”

As far as Dixon was concerned, the good thing was that it was against his teammates, not Tennessee. “But I was really off,” he said.

It just goes to show, however, that an ill-fated rehearsal doesn’t mean a bad performance when the spotlight comes on.

Dixon gave up only five hits in eight innings against Tennessee, walked two batters, and helped lead Fullerton to an 11-0 victory that sent the Titans into Saturday’s championship game against the winner of today’s game between USC and Miami.

It was one of Dixon’s top performances of the season. The only games comparable came in a five-hitter in eight innings against Texas early in the season, and a two-hitter in eight innings against San Jose State later in the year. But neither of those were shutouts.

Thursday’s victory was his 13th of the season without a loss, but he has struggled at times, especially with his control. He gave up four runs in five innings against Northeast Louisiana in the South Regional in his last start, even though the Titans won the game, 7-6.

This time he pitched almost flawlessly. “I thought Tim’s performance was awesome,” Titan catcher Brian Loyd said. “He’s struggled at times, but today he was magnificent. All his pitches were there, and his changeup was nails.”

Loyd also could laugh about the contrast between Dixon’s performance Thursday and in the scrimmage.

“One of the things Tim does sometimes is try to throw the perfect pitch,” Loyd said. “I’ve told him that sometimes he just needs to get the ball over the plate, and let the other eight guys out there help him. But he gets excited and wants to do so well.”

Loyd was more than a good batterymate to Dixon Thursday. Loyd cracked a grand slam in the first inning that made Dixon’s day at the office a lot easier. Loyd was surprised that his 10th home run of the season carried over the wall in left-center with a brisk 16-m.p.h. wind blowing into the right field corner.

“I watched the balls hit in batting practice and they were moving out a lot better in to right than they were to left,” Loyd said.

While Loyd was pleased with his day, he said one of the good things about this team is that different players rise to the occasion on different days.

“We don’t rely on just one person to get it done,” he said. “That’s what’s so much fun this season.”