Titans Finally Solve Bat Issue, but Pitching Is the Real Story

It was only slightly more than three hours before game time when Cal State Fullerton baseball Coach George Horton got the word.

Until then, he wasn’t sure which bats his team would be swinging in Friday night’s season opener against Stanford at Titan Field.

But the Titans were finally cleared to use their new reduced-power aluminum bats after their bat company provided the indemnity insurance agreement required by the Big West Conference.

Fullerton, ranked 15th nationally, squeezed four runs out of those new bats in the first inning on four singles and two walks and went on to an 8-0 victory over the seventh-ranked Cardinal in front of 1,189.

It was “little ball” nearly all the way for the Titans, who got a big boost from Adam Johnson’s strong pitching performance.

Johnson, the Titan closer last season as a freshman, gave up only two hits in 6 1/3 innings and struck out seven. Johnson walked two batters in both the fifth and six innings, and one in the seventh before being replaced by Kirk Saarloos. Saarloos held Stanford hitless in the final 2 2/3 innings, striking out the side in the ninth.

It was the first shutout for the Titans and the first time Stanford (1-3) has been shut out since 1997.

“I felt real good, even though I was a little anxious with it being my first start,” Johnson said. “I probably threw a little finer than I should have at times, and my arm might have gotten a little tired.”

The Titans’ Ryan Moore had the only home run of the game, a bases-empty shot that cleared the wall in right in the eighth. “With the old bats, that would have really been out,” Horton said. “He really got all of it.”

Horton said he was prepared for his team to use wooden bats against Stanford’s metal bats if the approval hadn’t come in time for the game. “I’m just glad it didn’t come to that, and that it was resolved in time,” Horton said.

The Titans took control with the big first inning. Moore singled in the first run of the year, scoring David Bacani, who had reached on an infield hit. Stanford starter Jason Young (0-1) walked in the second run after giving up a base hit to Chris Beck and a walk. Ryan Owens’ single with the bases loaded brought in two more runs.

Fullerton scored single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

Aaron Rifkin walked to open the fifth inning and eventually scored on catcher Jeff Gates’ single. Rod Perry Jr. singled to lead off the sixth and scored when Beck walked with the bases loaded.

“We got the table set all night with the little things,” Horton said. “We wanted to keep it fairly simple with the field still wet from the rain. Conditions weren’t the best. But we’ve said all along that our type of game is probably more conducive to a deader-bat era.”