Fullerton Lost Command When Defense Faltered, Bats Failed

OMAHA —  With the season over, the search for perspective has set in.

Cal State Fullerton came within one game of the national championship game in the College World Series, but that was as far as it went.

“You’ve got to be happy with our position and the year we had,” Titan Coach Larry Cochell said Saturday. “You get to this point, and you make the plays or you don’t make the plays.”

Fullerton did not make the last few plays it needed, and for that reason the Titans went home Saturday, the day that Stanford beat Arizona State for the championship.

Fullerton had appeared to be in command as late as Thursday morning, when the Titans were the only remaining undefeated team. But Stanford, which had lost to the Titans Monday, came back to eliminate Fullerton by handing it two consecutive losses.

The Titans (43-18) came up short when their defense faltered, along with the bats of the hitters who had paced them all season.

Keith Kaub, the Titans’ power hitter, batted .333 in the Series, but he had only one extra-base hit--a home run--in 15 at-bats and struck out 5 times.

Brent Mayne, the Titans’ leading hitter, batted .267 in the Series, well below the .401 average he brought in.

And Mike Ross, the Titans’ cleanup hitter, batted .250, though he had a home run and two doubles.

They were, of course, facing better pitching, and they had a particularly difficult time with Lee Plemel, the Stanford pitcher who was named the tournament’s outstanding player.

Fullerton’s own pitching held up well. Longo Garcia pitched two complete games and had a 2.0 earned-run average, and Mark Beck struck out 13 in beating Stanford the first time before he struggled a bit in the final game, when the Fullerton defense let a 3-0 lead get away.

One way or another, Fullerton just came up short.

It was a season of some memorable scenes.

There was Cochell, taking over in September, dealing with the legacy of Augie Garrido, and finally taking the team to the Series, where Collegiate Baseball magazine named him coach of the year.

He gives all the credit to the players.

“I told them, ‘I’m coach of the year, you know why? Because the kids played. If the kids don’t play, I’m not coach of the year.’ ”

There was Mayne, the Titan catcher who was brought in for his defensive abilities, mounting a school and Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.-record 38-game hitting streak.

There was the Fullerton team, overcoming a slump at the end of the season to sweep through its first six postseason games undefeated.

And at the end, there was Garrido, watching his old team from the stands, saying that it was in position to win it all.

Cochell thought so, too.

“I left thinking we could have won it,” he said. “We were right there. The hardest part is getting there. That’s what’s disappointing. We were right there. One more game of pretty flawless baseball would have done it.”

But flawless baseball wasn’t what the Titans had in them during the last two games.

As often as the Titans make it to the Series--and there have been five trips--Fullerton has always seemed a bit of an outsider.

It has to do with the stadium organ.

In the midst of schools with more established traditions, Fullerton was the only team here without a fight song.

Organist Jim Hines, who breaks into strains of a school’s song when a run is scored or a rally started, had to improvise with Fullerton.

“California, Here I Come,” was the tune most often used, although “King of the Road” and “On the Road Again” were also used--references to the fact that Fullerton, because its home field isn’t of sufficient quality to host a regional, has competed in 12 NCAA regionals since 1975, all on the road.

Jim Osborn, who replaced Rex Peters in right field during the Series, was the only Titan to make the all-tournament team.

Osborn, who batted .317 with 5 home runs during the season, hit .400 with 2 home runs in the Series.

Peters, who did not make the trip to Omaha, was suspended indefinitely before the Series for disciplinary reasons that school officials will not elaborate on.