Injury, Illness Take a Big Toll on the Titans

Cal State Fullerton’s Ike Harmon and Matt Caldwell hoped to finish their Titan careers by having big seasons, but illness and injury have intervened.

Caldwell continues to have tests to determine the cause of an illness that has left him sidelined since Dec. 22 with swollen lymph nodes and an enlarged spleen.

Harmon learned last week that he will be sidelined indefinitely because of another stress fracture in the foot he injured in preseason practice. He is expected to be out a minimum of four weeks.

With only about six weeks left in the regular season, time is running out for them.

“I think Matt probably has a better chance of getting back this season than Ike does,” Coach Donny Daniels said. “I don’t know if it’s the best thing for Ike’s future for him to try to play again in four weeks.”

However, both players said they hope they can return this season--even for a short time--despite the fact that Fullerton has won only twice in 15 games.

Trainer Wil Filamor said Caldwell has an appointment with a blood specialist on Friday. “The doctors have had trouble pinpointing Matt’s problem,” Filamor said. “But at this point they think it might be related to a past mononucleosis infection. His spleen is still inflamed and until that changes, he won’t be allowed to practice.”

Caldwell said he hasn’t been at full strength since preseason practice began. He said he was bothered by mononucleosis-type symptoms that began last August.

“I felt like I didn’t have my normal energy,” Caldwell said. “It seemed like I needed to sleep a lot. Finally, it really hit me hard on that road trip to the Midwest in December when it was so cold.”

Caldwell has averaged 5.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in the nine games he played this season, but his performances seemed below the efforts of his sophomore and junior seasons.

Caldwell played in only seven games as a junior before he was sidelined for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. He averaged 12.7 points and 4.3 rebounds.

“I’d like to come back, even for just a few games if I can,” Harmon said. “I’m not going to give up on doing that. I worked too hard to get back this year.”

Harmon earned the extra season of eligibility he lost as a freshman nonqualifier by graduating in four years.

Harmon has averaged a team-leading 14 points and 5.3 rebounds this season in 12 games, despite his continuing foot problems, but the marks are below those of his previous three seasons. He averaged a career-high 18.7 points and 7.5 rebounds last season.

Harmon is 17 points shy of the No. 3 spot among the school’s all-time leaders in scoring. He currently ranks fifth with 1,479 points.

TITANS FAVORED

Cal State Fullerton is the favorite to win the Big West Conference baseball championship this season, with Long Beach State rated second, according to a preseason poll of the seven conference coaches.

Fullerton had six of the seven first-place votes with Long Beach getting the other. Fullerton had 48 points and Long Beach 43.

UC Santa Barbara was ranked third with 31 points. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal State Northridge tied for fourth with 24 points.

Long Beach shortstop Bobby Crosby, who played at La Quinta High, is Collegiate Baseball’s preseason selection as the conference’s top position player, and the Titans’ Kirk Saarloos is rated its top pitcher.

Collegiate Baseball, which ranked Fullerton 12th in its preseason poll, picked the Titans as the favorite to win the conference with Long Beach second.

NOTEWORTHY

After a 6-4 start, Concordia’s men’s basketball team finds itself at 7-10 overall and 1-6 in the Golden State Athletic Conference. Senior Brad DeGrenier leads the team in scoring (14.3 points). Junior Sonny Mannon is the leading rebounder (7.3) and freshman Chris Pacana has 56 assists. . . In the 10-team GSAC men’s race. Hope International (10-11, 2-5) is seventh, Concordia is ninth and Vanguard (4-14, 0-7) is in the basement. On the women’s side, Vanguard (11-5, 4-3) and Concordia (8-9, 4-3) are in a four-way tie with Cal Baptist (11-7, 4-3) and Fresno Pacific (13-7, 4-3) for third place. Hope International (8-12, 0-7) is in last place . . . A record crowd of 1,204 showed up to see UC Santa Barbara beat host UC Irvine, 70-58, Sunday in a Big West women’s basketball game. A three-point basket by guard Debby Caine, formerly of San Clemente High, was a big part of a 10-2 Santa Barbara Gaucho run that sealed the win. Caine, a sophomore, also assisted on a basket that gave the Gauchos a 60-42 lead with 5:15 left.

Staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.