The Cardinal Number for Titans Is Two

After fending off elimination with an 11-2 victory over Tulane on Tuesday, Cal State Fullerton’s rugged path to the College World Series championship game is clearly marked with a familiar obstacle.

Not only must the Titans win two more games, they must win both against Stanford, a team that has been Fullerton’s nemesis in George Horton’s four seasons as Fullerton’s head coach.

Fullerton, which played Stanford for the first time in 1979, is 28-35 against the Cardinal. The Titans are 4-13 against Stanford under Horton and 1-9 against the Cardinal in their last 10 games, including Friday’s 5-2 loss that dropped Fullerton into the losers’ bracket.

“My record against almost every other Division I team is pretty good,” said Horton, who is 221-93-1 at Fullerton. “But we’ve had a tough time with Stanford. It’s one of those things that goes in cycles and, hopefully, the cycle will start to turn in our favor pretty quick.”

Top-seeded Fullerton (48-17), which lost two of three games against Stanford early this season, plays the fourth-seeded Cardinal (50-16) today at 4 p.m. PDT. If Stanford wins, the Cardinal returns to Saturday’s championship game for the second year in a row. If the Titans win, the teams meet again in an elimination game Friday.

“We’re ready,” said Fullerton second baseman David Bacani, who hit two homers and drove in five runs against Tulane. “What happened earlier in the season doesn’t mean anything right now. This is the World Series.”

Fullerton lost to Stanford in its 1999 World Series opener and is 2-4 against the Cardinal in Omaha.

Two of those losses came in 1988 after a Fullerton team coached by Larry Cochell defeated the defending-champion Cardinal in the first postseason game between the schools--then lost twice to the Cardinal and was eliminated.

The Cardinal went on to defeat Arizona State in the final to become the first school to win consecutive titles since USC won in 1972, ’73 and ’74.

Fullerton and Stanford have played an early-season three-game series annually since 1982.

In February, Fullerton won the first game when Bacani capped a three-run rally with a single that gave the Titans a 5-4 victory and ended a six-game losing streak against the Cardinal.

In the second game, Fullerton third baseman Shawn Norris grounded into a ninth-inning double play, preserving a 9-8 victory for the Cardinal.

Stanford won the third game, 3-0, behind left-hander Tim Cunningham and Mike Wodnicki. Jason VanMeetren and Jason Cooper hit consecutive sixth-inning home runs against Titan ace Kirk Saarloos.

“I’m getting tired of losing to those guys,” Horton said afterward.

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Staff writer Lon Eubanks contributed to this story.

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The Series

Cal State Fullerton vs. Stanford in 2001:

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Feb. 2 Fullerton 5, Stanford 4 Feb. 3 Stanford 9, Fullerton 8 Feb. 4 Stanford 3, Fullerton 0 June 10 Stanford 5, Fullerton 2

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