Angels Give Cal State Fullerton an Education

Cal State Fullerton pitcher Matt Wise couldn’t help but be in awe in the first inning of Thursday’s exhibition against the Angels when he faced Tim Salmon, Chili Davis, J.T. Snow, Garret Anderson and Tim Wallach.

“It was really interesting for me to be pitching to those kinds of guys, but that made it fun,” Wise said.

The Angel regulars didn’t take it easy on the college kids. They batted around and scored six runs in the first. But once they left, it was a competitive game.

The Angels won, 11-7, but the Titans ended up matching them in hits with 12 and outscoring them, 7-5, after the first inning. The Titans used wooden bats.

Salmon’s two-run homer was the big hit in the first. Wise walked Davis and Snow before Anderson doubled in one run and Wallach singled in two more.

“Those guys can really hit,” Wise said. “I was up on the count on a couple of them, but I didn’t want to give them anything they could really hit. Then they took my mistakes, and really hit them.”

Mark Kotsay, Jeremy Giambi and Brian Loyd, three veterans back from the Titans’ national championship team, each had two hits. Kotsay was two for four, and made two sparkling catches in center field, including one diving for a short fly ball. Giambi had a triple and double.

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said he was impressed and gave credit to Titan Coach Augie Garrido and his coaches.

“I can see why they won the national championship last year,” Lachemann said. “They do a fine job of hitting the ball. They really stay on it. You see can the work Augie and his coaches do. Kotsay is a fine player, and he does it defensively as well as offensively.”

The Angels beat Arizona State in an exhibition last year, 13-5.

“You can say I just got out-managed, but the Angels have a lot better scholarship program than we do,” Garrido said.

“But it was a good experience for our players. They did well, although we had some defensive breakdowns that contributed to some of their runs. I’m sure the Angels could have turned it up a notch later, too, if they had needed to.”

Wallach, who played on Fullerton’s 1979 national championship team, said he enjoyed going against his former team and coach.

“It was fun [today],” Wallach said. “I’d played against Fullerton before in a couple of alumni games, but we knew we were going to lose then. You knew they wanted to beat us bad.”

Lachemann began pulling his regulars after the first, and Chris Pritchett homered in the third for a 7-0 lead, but then the Titans got going offensively with three runs in the fourth. Tony Martinez singled in the first run after an error and a hit by Steve Chatham, and C.J. Ankrum drove in two runs with a single.

Fullerton picked up two more in the fifth. Loyd singled and scored on a triple by freshman Aaron Rowand, who scored on a passed ball. Fullerton added two runs in the seventh when Kotsay walked and scored on Giambi’s triple.

That cut the deficit to 9-7, but the Angels scored twice in the seventh. Doubles by Pritchett and Orlando Palmeiro were the key hits.

“I felt more relaxed in this game than I would have in a regular game,” Giambi said. “I didn’t think that much about the names. I was just out there to have a good time. They pulled their big guys out early, but those other players are all good players. They were all drafted. I look at it as a confidence-builder, and I think the team should take it as that.”