Titan Baseball Team Begins Workouts

The Cal State Fullerton baseball team begins preseason workouts Tuesday and several key position battles are expected before the Titans open the season Jan. 30 at Pepperdine.

“We like our depth, but it’s going to make it difficult for us to settle on a lineup for the start of the season,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “We’ll probably have to do some experimenting.”

David Bacani, a three-time All-Big West Conference selection, returns at second base. Aaron Rifkin will be back at first and Chris Stringfellow is returning in center field. Brett Kay appears set at catcher, where the Titans lack the depth they had last season.

One of the tightest position battles is expected to be at shortstop between sophomore Mike Rouse, who redshirted last season after transferring from San Jose State, and sophomore Mike Martinez, the regular nearly all of last season.

“Martinez was a solid defensive player last season, but this fall he was driving the ball a lot better,” Horton said. “At this point, we think Martinez and Rouse are two of our best nine players.”

That means one of them might challenge returning regular Shawn “Murph” Norris for the starting job at third base.

Sophomore Jason Corapci, who batted .330 as a freshman, is expected to earn time in the infield, outfield or as the designated hitter. “We think Jason deserves to play some place,” Horton said. “His best position probably is at second, but he’s not going to play there with Bacani back.”

Senior Matt Belfanti and junior Robert Guzman return in the outfield along with Stringfellow, but two freshmen, Kyle Boyer and Shane Costa, are expected to challenge for starting jobs. Guzman missed most of fall practice because of anemia, but Horton said he expects him to be ready for the season.

Boyer was particularly impressive in the fall. “He’s shown he can hit with power,” Horton said. “In the nine scrimmages we had in the fall, he must have had three or four home runs. It wasn’t just that. He showed power consistently in batting practice.”

Horton said one of the keys will be how the untested pitchers develop.

The Titans have two proven senior pitchers in left-hander Jon Smith and right-hander Kirk Saarloos. Saarloos should become a starter this season after posting a 2.32 earned-run average last season as a closer.

Charlie Zahari, a transfer from Central Missouri State who redshirted last season, appears to have the edge to be the third starter, but sophomore Nick Lovato and freshmen Darric Merrell and Chad Cordero also will get consideration.

“Several of our younger pitchers came in at the level we hoped they would,” Horton said.

After opening on the road, the Titans will play a three-game series at home against Stanford, ranked No. 11 in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll. The Titans are ranked 12th.

HOPING FOR BETTER

The Cal State Fullerton wrestling team resumes competition after the holiday break in dual meets Saturday at UC Davis, against the host school and Air Force. The Titans also will compete in an open meet at UC Davis Sunday.

The Titans were 0-2 in dual meets in the first semester. “I think we’ll do well in the second semester,” Coach Ardesir Asgari said. “I was encouraged by the way we wrestled against Fresno State.”

Fresno State, the nation’s 16th-ranked team, defeated the Titans, 23-17. The Titans also were beaten by Southern Oregon, then fifth-ranked in the NAIA, 23-18.

NOTEWORTHY

Two UC Irvine basketball players were selected as players of the week in the Big West Conference last week. Wendy Gabbe took the honor in women’s basketball and Jerry Green shared it in men’s basketball with Travis Reed of Long Beach State. Gabbe had a career-high 22 points in the Anteaters’ victory over Pittsburgh Thursday. Green tied his career high with 29 points in a victory over UC Riverside Dec. 23. . . . The Irvine women’s basketball team is ranked 19th nationally in scoring defense in the most recent NCAA statistics.