Titans Have Nothing to Show for Torrid Start

Kevin Costner has left the building, and so have baseballs struck by Ted Wilkes and Kevin Eberwein of Nevada Las Vegas and Jason Hodges and Jeff Tagliaferri of Long Beach State.

Saturday afternoon and night, these were the telltale signs of a defending national champion breaking down, on its home ground, in front of grimacing family and friends, getting swept out the Big West Tournament in a gruesome doubleheader display that almost defied comprehension.

Final scores to digest, with the aid of a strong antacid:

UNLV 9, Cal State Fullerton 8.

Long Beach State 13, Cal State Fullerton 9.

In a double-elimination tournament, this means the Titans will be idle today while the Big West Tournament champion is determined. Either UNLV or Long Beach will be the winner, gaining the automatic NCAA bid that goes with it. The Titans, meanwhile, have been cut loose, cast adrift, sent to sea and are now at large.

Or so they can only hope.

They swung at the Big West regular-season title, and they missed.

They swung at the Big West Tournament title, and they missed.

Down to their last strike, the Titans are now depending on an at-large bid from the NCAA committee to reach a regional and somehow resurrect their once-inevitable march back to Omaha--now slowed to a wounded hobble.

Costner, noted Fullerton alumnus and FOA (Friend Of Augie), stayed for only the first game Saturday, possibly because he expected a swift pounding of UNLV, a cruise by the Titans into the championship round and a quick getaway in time for dinner. Or maybe he feared the worst.

Either way, after blowing leads of 3-0 and 5-3 to UNLV, the Titans were on their own in the must-win against Long Beach, which they didn’t, which leaves their fate in the hands of the same seeding committee that inspected Fullerton’s 34-22 record and first-place finish in 1991 and sniffed, “No good, you’re staying home.”

At 42-12 and ranked among the top five in two of the three national collegiate baseball polls, the Titans aren’t likely to be snubbed this time. Although stranger things have happened--such as that nine-run sixth inning by Long Beach Saturday night. If they do make it, however, the Titans won’t be a No. 1 seed in any of the eight regional tournaments and could be thrown into a West Coast group of death with, say, USC, Fresno State and Cal State Northridge.

It is possible to get to Omaha from there, but not without sustaining significant body damage.

From 31-2 on April 2 and 38-4 on April 20 to 0-2 on the fateful date of May 11 . . . whatever happened to the runaway Fullerton bullet train?

It’s one thing to be eliminated by Long Beach, which is usually ranked and always a Titan irritant, but to have the exit ramp assembled by UNLV--a team that hadn’t beaten Fullerton in its last 16 tries and was winless at Titan Field since 1988?

A team that was swept by Fullerton, three straight, in late March by scores of 10-5, 4-2 and 20-11?

Those Titans, according to UNLV Coach Fred Dallimore, “were playing with a lot of confidence.”

And now?

“Well, I don’t think they’re a lesser team,” Dallimore allowed. “They’re playing with basically the same people. But we had seen them play twice in this tournament and had already played them three times ourselves. We had a pretty good scouting report worked up on them.”

Wilkes, the Rebel right fielder who decided the outcome with a massive two-run homer in the eighth inning, offered his own take.

“I think during the first series, we were intimidated by their national ranking,” Wilkes said. “They were No. 1, they were beating quality clubs like USC and Florida State. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win because we came in intimidated.

“We matured a lot after that.”

And the Titans, Dallimore believes, grew wearier and wearier from carrying the crown and the bullseye-on-the-back that comes with it.

“My son [Brian] plays at Stanford,” Dallimore said, “and he tells me, ‘Dad, when you’re on top everybody’s shooting for you.’ And when everybody’s shooting for you, it uses up a lot of emotion. Let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to get up for a No. 1 team than it is for an unranked one.”

Maybe now the Titans can slip back in the rankings, take deeper breaths and try the sneaking-up technique themselves.

Assuming the NCAA allows them the chance.