Titans’ Rematch With Cardinal Has Finality to It

Cal State Fullerton may have had Stanford’s number this season but it can’t rid itself of the Cardinal just yet. Only now a berth in the College World Series championship finals is at stake in a blossoming postseason rivalry.

Stanford got another clutch performance from right-hander John Hudgins Wednesday and Carlos Quentin supported him with two home runs in a 5-3 victory over the Titans.

The Cardinal win forced a rematch today (4 p.m. PDT) at Rosenblatt Stadium. A win allows the Titans to play for their first national title since 1995. A loss means a disappointing end to a season in which they were ranked in the nation’s top five most of the year.

The Titans (50-15) already have encountered an elimination game this postseason, defeating Arizona State to get to Omaha. Jason Windsor, who defeated Louisiana State in the Titans’ CWS opener, is scheduled to start.

“We all know what we’re up against,” right fielder Shane Costa said. “All we can do is play our game, have confidence and not get too gooned out about stuff. Just play hard like we normally play.”

Hudgins (13-3), the former Mission Viejo High star, pitched his eighth complete game of the season Wednesday. A third-round pick of the Texas Rangers, he gave up one hit after the third inning and struck out seven. P.J. Pilittere opened the ninth with a single but Hudgins retired the final three batters, giving Stanford its first victory over Fullerton in five tries this year.

“John Hudgins was not going to come out,” Stanford Coach Mark Marquess said.

“Usually if he’s shaky, it’s early. He starts to get going at 100 pitches.”

Quentin, a first-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, continued his torrid play at the plate. The All-American right fielder is hitting .529 in nine postseason games and has seven hits in 14 CWS at-bats.

He got Stanford going in the first inning with a two-run homer off Wes Littleton (7-4), then finished off the Titans in the eighth with a long homer off reliever Travis Ingle.

“If Quentin had stayed home and Hudgins had stayed home, we’d have had a better chance of winning today,” Fullerton Coach George Horton said.

Down, 2-0, Fullerton bounced back when Pilittere hit a solo homer in the second and Costa lined a two-run double down the left-field line in the third for a 3-2 lead.

Littleton, picked by the Rangers after Hudgins, was pressed into the start when the Titan coaching staff determined hours before the game that left-hander Ryan Schreppel couldn’t go because of a stiff shoulder. After throwing only 26 pitches in two scoreless innings Sunday, Littleton wasn’t as sharp as usual but kept the Titans within reach.

The junior gave up four runs and six hits in six innings but left trailing, 4-3.

Stanford (49-16) grabbed the lead in the fifth when Littleton allowed a game-tying RBI single to Brian Hall and threw a wild pitch that scored Chris Carter.

Said Littleton: “I just tried to keep my team as close as I could. It just didn’t work out the way I wanted.”

Few things worked the way Fullerton wanted. The Titans failed in areas in which they usually excel.

Twice they couldn’t bunt a runner into scoring position, and Pilittere was easily thrown out at second base on a missed hit-and-run sign. The most glaring example came in the seventh when Jason Corapci couldn’t move Kurt Suzuki over with a bunt and eventually flied to center. Leadoff hitter Ronnie Prettyman then hit into a double play.

“We had a hit-and-run and missed a sign,” Horton said, calling his team’s approach on offense sloppy. “Young people tend to get excited and coaches tend to get excited. I was searching, trying to get something going. If we had just played it closer to the vest, things might have gone a little better.

“We all were doing our best. We were just trying too hard.”