Anxious Titan Hitters, Pitchers Trying to Work Out of Slump

Cal State Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido was behind the batting cage at Blair Field in Long Beach last weekend when he looked over and broke the silence. There was no doubt what was on his mind.

“In slumps, players tend to do things that are uncharacteristic,” he said. “It’s important for them to keep doing things within themselves.”

But, in baseball, slumps inexorably bring anxiety.

Garrido’s Titans were so dominant earlier in the season, when they won 31 of 32 games after a season-opening loss at Stanford. But now they’ve lost four of their last five games, and three of their last four Big West Conference series, two games to one.

And for a program that has been as remarkably consistent as Fullerton’s over two seasons, that certainly qualifies as a slump.

The reasons for it?

The Titans aren’t hitting as well as they did through much of the season. Fullerton has had nine or fewer hits in each of its last six games. In the three-game series against Long Beach, the Titans had six extra-base hits. And the team that was averaging 10 runs a game has averaged only four in the last two weeks.

The pitching staff, which thrived on the team’s offensive success through much of the season, hasn’t been dominant enough lately to make up the difference.

“That’s the bottom line,” said Titan associate head coach George Horton, who is in charge of the pitchers.

Brent Billingsley, who had become the Titans’ most consistent pitcher with two consecutive complete-game victories, ran into control trouble that was costly in a 4-2 loss in the opener of the three-game series against Long Beach Friday. He walked two and hit another batter in the two-run sixth inning.

Scott Hild came back with a strong performance Saturday, giving up only six hits and no walks through eight innings, and the Titans won, 7-2, to end a three-game losing streak. But the Titans weren’t able to keep it going on the mound. Kirk Irvine put Fullerton in such a deep hole with a five-run first inning Sunday that the Titans couldn’t dig their way out in a 9-6 defeat.

“The problem with Irvine was that he couldn’t get anything over the plate but his fastball, and Long Beach took advantage of it,” Horton said. “He threw two fastballs that were fat on 2-1 counts and Long Beach got home runs on both of them.”

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No small factor in all this might be that all six Fullerton Big West losses in April have come on the road.

Fullerton has lost only once in 24 games at home. Pepperdine won, 1-0, when the Waves went with their No. 1 pitcher, Randy Wolf, in a midweek game.

The Titans also have swept both Big West teams they’ve faced at Titan Field, Nevada Las Vegas and Nevada, and will be the only contender playing at home this weekend when the conference’s regular-season title will be decided. Fullerton meets Santa Barbara, one of the four teams that still has a chance to win or share the championship, in a three-game series that begins Friday night.

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One of the quirks of the Big West schedule this year left Fullerton as one of four teams with only three conference series at home while playing four on the road. A year ago, the situation was reversed. The Titans were 18-3 in the conference last year, compared to 12-6 this season with three games left at home. Long Beach, which has a one-game lead in the conference race, has that schedule advantage this year, but will have to finish on the road this weekend at San Jose State.

Fullerton isn’t the only top team that has had some problems on the road in conference play.

The top teams in the Southeast Conference know the feeling. Florida, ranked No. 1 in one poll this week, leads the SEC Eastern Division at 16-8, but is 5-4 in conference games on the road. Louisiana State leads the Western Division at 16-8, but is 7-5 on the road. USC lost two of three games at Arizona State last weekend, but has done better than the other top Pacific 10 teams on the road in conference play at 10-4. However, Stanford is 7-7, UCLA 6-7 and Arizona State 4-8 in conference road games.

The Titans’ 39-8 record is the same as it was after 47 games a year ago. But the key will be whether they can regain some of that earlier momentum this weekend and in the Big West postseason tournament at Fullerton May 10-12, when the automatic berth to the NCAA tournament will be decided.

Titan Notes

The Titan softball team has lost nine of its last 12 games and is 37-24. Fullerton lost four in a row last weekend, losing doubleheaders to New Mexico State and Nevada Las Vegas, to drop into fourth place in the Big West at 15-3, six games behind conference-leading Long Beach State. Fullerton plays at Long Beach Friday and UC Santa Barbara Saturday. . . . Coach Bob Hawking has completed the Titan men’s basketball schedule for next season with the addition of a game at Brigham Young that will open the season Nov. 22. Fullerton’s first home game will be Nov. 30 against Utah. . . . The tennis team finished eighth in the Big West tournament last weekend at Ojai after being seeded eighth.