Confidence Powering Titans’ Offensive Surge

Cal State Fullerton has averaged more than 10 runs a game during its 12-game baseball winning streak, and Coach George Horton says the key has been the team’s new confidence.

“I’m really happy with the approach we’ve been taking at the plate, and that’s led to good results,” Horton said. “Our hitters are going to the plate with more confidence. Hitting is contagious.”

The Titans, ranked sixth by Collegiate Baseball and 10th by Baseball America this week, have won 18 of their last 20 games and improved to 26-10. They lead the Big West Conference with a 6-0 record after sweeping Sacramento State last weekend.

Fullerton scored 37 runs in the three games against Sacramento State and has scored 129 runs--an average of 10.75 a game--during its winning streak.

The streak is Fullerton’s longest since the Titans won 17 consecutive games during the 1999 season. They averaged 10.82 runs during that stretch.

The 1999 team, which advanced to the College World Series, averaged a school-record 9.2 runs per game in a 50-14 season, compared to Fullerton’s average of 6.72 this season. The 1995 national championship team averaged 8.7.

“One of the reasons we’ve been successful lately is that we’ve been taking what the pitcher gives us, and we haven’t had a greedy approach,” Horton said. “We fell back into that a little on Friday, but we addressed it and we had a good approach again on Saturday.”

The team’s batting average has improved to .305 with nine players above .300. Mike Rouse leads the way with a .379 average and is 16 for 25 (.640) in the last five games. Chris Stringfellow is batting .360, followed by Jason Corapci at .355 and Brett Kay at .347. Kay, the Titan catcher, is 12 for 29 with 12 runs batted in since he returned to the lineup after being sidelined for five weeks with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.

“We’ve had a lot of different guys contributing lately, and some of our guys who weren’t having good years are hitting much better now,” Horton said.

Horton said second baseman David Bacani, batting .313, has been slowed with flu-like symptoms the last two weeks. “He hasn’t been as good as he can be,” Horton said. “I can tell it’s been bothering him.”

Horton said he was pleased by the way Jon Smith (7-0) pitched Saturday. Smith, who had to leave his previous start in the first inning because of a strained groin, gave up only four hits and two runs in seven innings in Fullerton’s 8-2 victory.

The Titans face a busy week with a game at Loyola Marymount at 2:30 p.m. today, a makeup of a rained-out game against UCLA at home at 3 p.m. Wednesday and a three-game conference series at Cal State Northridge beginning Friday.

Charlie Zahari is scheduled to start against Loyola and Wes Littleton against UCLA. “They’ll probably go only four or five innings each, so we’ll have them for the weekend if we need them,” Horton said.