Titans Have Their Own Yaz

Her teammates on the Cal State Fullerton softball team call Yasmin Mossadeghi “Yaz.”

It’s a nickname that seems to fit a power hitter. It worked fine for Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

Mossadeghi is a slugger in her own right. She became the Big West Conference career leader in home runs this season as a junior, which means she should have plenty of opportunity to add to the record total before her career ends.

She started this season with five homers in the first six games in a tournament at New Mexico.

“I was really surprised by that kind of start,” she said. “I didn’t expect to do that well right off the bat, but it seems like my homers come in bunches a lot of the time.”

Mossadeghi has hit 31 in three seasons, including 11 this season. At least a couple were tape-measure shots.

Last season, she tied for the conference lead in homers with 13 and led the Big West in runs batted in with 48. The Titan season record is 23 homers set by Stephenie Little in 1999.

Mossadeghi, who played for Edison High, hopes she can have another good run in the final three weeks of the regular season.

“I feel real good about my swing now,” Mossadeghi said. “I did some experimenting with it late last season, and it seems to have helped me. I closed my stance a little and brought my bat further back. It created a more explosive swing, and I’ve stayed with it.”

Mossadeghi said she has been a more patient hitter this season. She learned the value of that as a freshman from watching Little at the plate and this season from current teammate Jenny Topping.

“I have to force myself to be patient,” Mossadeghi said. “[Topping] is good at that. She stays calm at the plate, and doesn’t let an umpire’s call bother her.”

She and Topping have been a formidable home run combination. Topping, who led the nation in home runs with 24 last season while playing for Washington, has 10 this season for Fullerton.

“Having [Topping] batting in front of me most of the time has probably helped me,” Mossadeghi said.

In a game frequently dominated by pitchers, Mossadeghi hits for average as well as power. She is batting .371 with 37 RBIs and has scored 23 runs. Earlier she had a 10-game hitting streak.

“I feel very positive about everything this season,” Mossadeghi said. “I know I’ve come a long way since my freshman year, and everything seems to be jelling for us as a team.”

The 10th-ranked Titans are 38-11 and lead the Big West with an 11-1 record. Fullerton hosts UC Santa Barbara for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday and a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

SERVED UP

Written off earlier in the season, the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team sneaked up on the rest of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and earned its second postseason berth in the last three seasons.

The Anteaters (13-12) have won 10 of their last 12 matches and crept to No. 8 in the national polls, equaling their highest ranking in school history. They play at No. 3 Brigham Young (20-3) Saturday in the opening round of the MPSF tournament.

In other MPSF games, USC (13-8) plays at Hawaii (17-6), Pepperdine (14-8) plays at Long Beach State (17-6), and Stanford (14-8) will try to reprise last week’s victory at UCLA (20-7) in Pauley Pavilion.

Earlier in the season, Irvine struggled after losing its top outside hitter, senior Ty Loomis. Loomis fractured his right leg in practice the day after he was named conference player of the week for his double-digit kill efforts in wins over USC and Princeton.

Coach Charlie Brande altered the lineup, but the Anteaters made a habit of squandering big leads. They led in each of the first two games at BYU on Feb. 24, only to allow the Cougars to regroup for a three-game sweep.

But things have come together nicely now. Irvine are coming off last week’s road upsets over Pacific and Stanford, which was Irvine’s first victory on Cardinal turf.

“We’ve come a long way,” Brande said. “Early in the season we were so close to everybody, but we did not have the maturity to finish games. Now, knock on wood, the players have a much better grasp of what it takes to do that.”

At Stanford, middle blocker Erick Helenihi, who was named national player of the week March 19, had 22 kills and hit .375. Setter Todd Steinert demonstrated his ball control with 12 digs. Outside hitters Jimmy Pelzel (13 kills, 10 digs) and Monte Tucker (12 kills, 11 digs) also stood out.

“Ty Loomis was a great player for us and I feel bad for him. He’s been extremely supportive on the bench,” Brande said. “But it forced us to use other people and the last four matches we’ve had four hitters in double figures.”

NOTEWORTHY

Capistrano Valley guard Jeff Gloger has signed to play for the men’s basketball team at UC Irvine, according to Cougar Coach Brian Mulligan. Gloger made 58.1% of his field-goal attempts and averaged 4.8 assists a game. . . . Cal State Fullerton senior right-hander Kirk Saarloos was named pitcher of the week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. after his April 8 no-hitter against Pacific.

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Staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.