Saarloos Has Been Starting and Stopping for Fullerton

USC’s Mark Prior and UCLA’s Josh Karp opened the season with accolades and have done nothing to tarnish their status as the nation’s top two major league pitching prospects.

But the hottest pitcher in the Southland, as well as the nation, might be Cal State Fullerton right-hander Kirk Saarloos.

Saarloos, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior from Long Beach, is starting and coming out of the bullpen for the Titans, who are ranked 24th by Baseball America and open a three-game series today at No. 4 Miami.

Saarloos saved a victory and won his start Sunday as Fullerton won two of three nonconference games against Long Beach State last weekend. Saarloos is 6-2 with a 1.32 earned-run average. Three of his five complete games have been shutouts. He also has four saves and 76 strikeouts in 68 innings and has walked only six. Opponents are batting .162 against him.

Saarloos gave up a leadoff home run to 49er shortstop Bobby Crosby and yielded two runs in the ninth in a 5-3 victory Sunday. He gave up seven hits, walked one and struck out nine.

“Kirk might have been a little tired today because he’s been pitching one complete game after another,” Fullerton Coach George Horton said. “He got through the ninth inning on experience, knowledge and his attitude. He’s a hard guy to beat.”

Saarloos, Jon Smith and Darric Merrell are a combined 12-4 with a 1.56 ERA heading into the Miami series against a Hurricane team that also features an outstanding pitching staff. Brian Walker, Kiki Bengochea and Tom Farmer are a combined 18-2 with a 2.55 ERA.

Aaron Rifkin, who has six homers and 18 runs batted in since ending an 0-for-21 slump Feb. 16, has led Fullerton’s offense. The senior first baseman from Fontana had a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth Tuesday to give Fullerton a 12-11 victory over No. 12 USC.

But for the second year in a row, Fullerton is suffering from a power shortage.

Last season, Fullerton hit only 44 homers, its lowest total in nine years. The Titans have hit only 11 so far this season.

*

Prior has been even better than expected for USC (20-11), which defeated San Diego State on Wednesday and has no Pacific 10 Conference games this weekend. The Trojans resume their conference schedule April 6 at home against No. 6 Arizona State.

Prior, a junior right-hander who has been projected as the possible No. 1 pick in June’s amateur draft, is 7-1 with a 1.39 ERA and has struck out 101 in 64 2/3 innings. He has given up only 38 hits and has walked seven.

Last weekend against Arizona, he struck out a career-high 15 in an 8-0 shutout.

Brian Barre is batting .324 with five homers and 29 RBIs and Josh Persell is hitting .307 with five homers and 27 RBIs for the Trojans, who are in second place in the Pac-10 with a 4-2 record.

Top-ranked Stanford (22-5) is 3-0, Oregon State (18-10) and Washington State (10-17) are 2-1, Arizona State (20-7-1) is 3-3, UCLA (17-8) is 1-2 and Washington (13-7), Arizona (19-15) and California (15-14) are 2-4.

Stanford plays at Arizona State this weekend.

UCLA opens a Pac-10 series at Washington State today.

The Bruins are coming off a 9-3 nonconference loss against San Diego in which they trailed 9-0 after four innings. Brian Baron is batting .510 with a homer and 18 RBIs for UCLA. Eric Reece has 28 RBIs and Matt Pearl 21 for a Bruin team that, as expected, has suffered a severe drop-off in home runs. The Bruins, who hit 117 last season, have 19 this season.

Karp, a junior right-hander, is 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA.

*

No. 16 Pepperdine completed a nine-game road swing with an 11-9 defeat against Cal State Northridge, giving the Waves a 3-6 record during the stretch.

Pepperdine, however, is tied with Santa Clara atop the West Coast Conference standings with a 7-2 record. The Waves play host to Gonzaga (10-13, 4-5 in WCC play) this weekend.

Loyola Marymount (14-18, 3-6) also plays a WCC series at home against Portland (13-13, 3-6).