Kaub Filling His Role as the Titans’ Big Man

OMAHA —  Keith Kaub does not look like a man who hits for average.

He looks like a man for whom you would recall this useful rule: Players who are called “Hoss” by their teammates do not swing for singles.

By a conservative measure, Kaub is 6-feet 4-inches tall and weighs 225 pounds, the image of a power hitter.

That is precisely his job on the Cal State Fullerton team, and he has done it well in the Titans’ attempt to bring a third College World Series championship to Fullerton.

In six postseason games, Kaub has hit four home runs, driven in eight runs and hit one fly ball to left that Fullerton statisticians are choosing to call “369/370ths” of a grand slam. Only a leaping catch by Stanford left fielder Brian Johnson kept the ball inside the park at the left-field wall, 370 feet from the plate.

But for all Kaub’s numbers--20 home runs, 16 doubles, 58 RBIs--one of the most impressive is this: His .347 average is second only to that of Brent Mayne, who has hit in 40 of his past 41 games to lift his average to .402.

That average is in part the result of Kaub’s efforts not to let at-bats get away here and there, their potential unused.

“Sometimes they can slip by, in the middle of a game, in the middle of a season, but you can’t let that happen,” said Kaub, who was selected by Montreal in the 28th round of the June draft.

Shane Flores, the Titans’ designated hitter and a teammate of Kaub’s at Golden West College two years ago, looks at it this way: “If he hit 20 home runs and hit .260 or .270, he’d be unhappy.”

Despite his attention to his average, Kaub is not looking for a grounder up the middle.

“I’m not here to hit singles,” he said. “I’m looking for a pitch up, a pitch I can drive.”

Kaub, who played at Los Alamitos High School before going on to Golden West and Fullerton, had only a moderate season last year, by this year’s standards. He hit .290, bothered by several injuries during the season.

But this year has been different, particularly the late part of the season. He has hit eight of his home runs in the past 15 games.

Beyond that, he has played his best in tournament games. Kaub was the most valuable player in the Busch Challenge in New Orleans, which Fullerton won, and his latest successes have been in the NCAA South Regional and the Series.

“He’s basically just a big-game player,” Flores said. “He knows what these games mean.”

Larry Cochell, Fullerton coach, agrees.

“He’s a pretty good clutch player,” Cochell said. “He has the ability to rise to the occasion during tournaments.”

One other reason Kaub excels in tournaments is that they allow him the opportunity to scout pitchers. When Fullerton isn’t playing, Kaub is usually at the ballpark anyway, watching pitchers--particularly relievers--that he may face later.

At Starkville, Miss., site of the NCAA South Regional, Kaub scouted Texas A&M;’s ace reliever, Scott Centala.

Fullerton ended up facing him in the late innings of the final game, and Kaub waited for the curveball he knew Centala would throw.

In the ninth, with Fullerton trailing, 3-0, Kaub hit a solo homer off Centala’s curve. He then shared the information with Mike Ross, whose three-run homer later in the inning gave Fullerton a victory and a trip to the Series.

Kaub, a senior, is an amiable fellow (Cochell calls him “a very gentle human being”), and he is very much at the center of this team.

“Some people take the game too seriously, and some not seriously enough,” Flores said. “He has the perfect mental outlook.”

The other players, Flores said, follow Kaub’s lead.

“They look up to him,” Flores said. “He’s 6-4. They have to.”

Titan Notes

Fullerton, still undefeated in six postseason games, can earn a spot in the College World Series championship game with a victory over Stanford today. Stanford, the defending champion, must win to avoid elimination. Should the Titans lose, the teams would play again Friday to determine which advances to the title game Saturday. Top-seeded Arizona State, which beat Wichita State, 4-3, in 10 innings on Wednesday, will be the other team in the championship game. . . . Longo Garcia, who has a 10-5 record and two postseason wins, is expected to be the starting pitcher for Fullerton. Lee Plemel, 11-8 and the winner of two postseason games, is expected to start for Stanford.