Titans Trying to Fight Off Elimination

Nine teams have won the College World Series after losing their first game.

Cal State Fullerton Coach George Horton hopes that his team becomes the 10th, as the Titans head into an elimination game against Texas A&M; today (4:30 p.m., PDT, ESPN2) at Rosenblatt Stadium.

“We only have to look back to last year with USC to see that it can be done,” Horton said.

The Trojans lost their first game to Louisiana State, but came back to defeat Florida, Mississippi State and LSU twice before winning the championship against Arizona State.

The Titans would have to win five games in six days to duplicate USC’s run. Arizona also did it in 1980, and Fullerton won it all in 1979 after losing in the opener. That was the first of three Titan national championships.

“We still have plenty of pitching left,” Horton said. “But we’re going to have to do some hitting too. Now it’s about doing it day to day. We just didn’t play well against Stanford, but Stanford had a lot to do with that.”

The Titans (49-13) were beaten by the Cardinal, 9-2, Saturday night in the first round on the strength of pitcher Jason Young’s six-hitter and 10th complete game of the season.

“Fullerton will come back,” Stanford Coach Mark Marquess said. “They’re good.”

But so is Texas A&M; (52-17), which has set a school record with 128 home runs. Sophomore Daylan Holt leads with 34 homers and 105 runs batted in. Shawn Schumacher, who transferred from Texas because he wanted to catch rather than play first base, leads the Aggies in batting (.381).

“They’re better offensively than they played in their first game,” Horton said. The Aggies were beaten, 7-3, by Florida State on Saturday.

Texas A&M; Coach Mark Johnson said he hasn’t decided whether he will start left-hander Matt Ward (8-0, 3.52 ERA) or right-hander Chance Capel (8-5, 4.26). Ward also played at Irvine High and Rancho Santiago College.

“I’m leaning to going with Ward since he’s been our hot pitcher lately,” Johnson said. “Fullerton has a lot of guys who can make things happen. They don’t have any weak spots in their lineup. Young just threw extremely well against them.”

Horton was debating between left-hander Jon Smith (7-0, 2.71) and right-hander Matt Sorensen (11-0, 4.36) as his starter and decided on Sorensen. Center fielder Reed Johnson’s status for the game is uncertain after he was hit in the chest during a collision with right fielder Robert Guzman against Stanford.

“If the game were today, it might be questionable whether I could play,” Johnson said Sunday. “Rob’s head hit me in the chest when we ran into each other. It hurts now when I try to pull through with my arms, but we’ll have to see if it feels better tomorrow.”

Guzman said the noise was so loud in the right field bleachers that he didn’t hear Johnson call for the ball. Guzman caught it as the two collided, and Johnson helped keep the ball in Guzman’s glove.

Johnson has been a key player for the Titans all season, leading the team in runs scored with 99. He is the Titans’ third-leading hitter (.394).

First baseman Chris Beck, the team’s top hitter with a .414 average, had back spasms during the game, but he is expected to play against the Aggies.

“His back has been bothering him the last couple of days,” Horton said. “But I think it would take a lot to keep either Beck or Johnson out of this tournament.”