The Titans have been struggling of late playing conference games at home. While they are on the road, every one heaves a sigh of relief because their performance on the road has been nothing short of stellar. With an away record of 17-4 and Neutral field (which were actually played in Oklahoma – so to me were also away) of 2-0, they are a tough opponent when not at Goodwin field. However, going into the series against Santa Barbara this past weekend, we were 10-8 at home. The fans in the stands are not used to watching our team lose quite that often during a season overall, and the chatter was how we would be lucky to have a chance to host the regionals this year. Everytime someone would mention that, into my brain popped the rebuttal – but we’re number 6 in the nation!
Jon Wilhite’s family was on hand during the entire series so people could chat with them about how Jon is doing and purchase the live long bracelets to help Jon and his family defray some of the hospital costs. It was rumored that Jon was up and around enough to take a shower and to tell Titan first baseman, Jared Clark, that the shower felt good. It is a blessing that he is improving so well.
We have reached the point where we do need to win some home games in order to stay alive in the polls and keep the confidence of our players up. And against Santa Barbara we were able to do just that. Friday night, Daniel Renken took the mound as is usual on Fridays. He came one out away from pitching a complete game, but had finally lost steam in the ninth and was having difficulty in getting that last out. Titans had a lead of 7-0, but after hitting one, and walking the next, Titans were able to record two outs before the next Gaucho batter hit a double and racked up two RBI’s and breaking the shut out for Renken. Since his hurler had already thrown 146 pitches, Dave Serrano lost no time in pulling his pitcher and the crowd gave him a standing ovation as he left the field. Ryan Ackland came into the game in relief to face Gaucho’s Shane Carlson and struck him out looking, giving the Titans the 7-2 victory. One word about the officiating during the course of the game – it was horrible. The Titans were taken out of a couple of innings by bad calls by the umpires as they were in the process of mounting another offensive attack, so who knows what the score would have been otherwise. Offensively, Jared Clark had two hits and two RBI’s, Khris Davis had two hits and two RBI’s, Dustin Garneau singled for two RBI’s in the third, and Joe Scott sac flied in the eighth to allow Jeff Newman to score the Titans final run for the game.
Having notched a nice win on Friday, we arrived at Goodwin Field Saturday night hopeful to add another home win to the record. While we thought the officiating was bad on Friday, it deteriorated further on Saturday. One of the most ridiculous calls of the game was made by the previous nights official behind the dish. He was now in the field and signalled an infield fly on a ball that was popped up to centerfield. I’d like to take a moment to let any umpires know that happen to read this, that part of the requirements for calling the infield fly rule is that the ball is coming down in the infield. . .you know. . .the part of the field which is defined by the dirt basepath. Any ball which passes the dirt basepath and goes over the grass into the outfield is no longer an infield fly. The umpire in this case made the call as the ball was passing through the infield and ultimately the fielder did drop the ball (there were actually 3 fielders surrounding the ball as it came down). This, of course, was quickly contested by head coach Dave Serrano. The other call during the game which caused a great deal of contention was by the home plate umpire calling Offensive Interference on batter Tony Harkey. Coach Serrano went out to discuss this with him again, but the real contention was between Coach Sergio Brown and the official who made the bad infield fly rule call. The umpire was making his way from behind 2nd base to the home plate area and veered off directly toward the Titan dug out pointing his arm as he did so. Sergio errupted out of the dugout and there was a very heated discussion which followed. Sergio was thrown out of the game, but as he was being marshalled from the field continued to try and walk back to continue the discussion with the umpire who simply turned his back and walked away. Sergio was back in the dugout on Sunday, dressed in uniform and all smiles, while the official in question did not return. Draw your own conclusions.
Ok – now for the game. Titans were victorious once again with a 5-4 win over the Gauchos. Noe Ramirez took the mound for the Titans to start the game and pitched 8.1 innings before handing the ball off to Nick Ramirez. Noe got a no decision on the game, although he pitched a beautiful game as the Gauchos took the lead in the sixth which held up until the bottom of the ninth. The team played well and we were getting men on base and starting to make things happen, but on at least two occasions, the officials took us out of the inning before we should have been. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of the game. Titans entered the bottom of the ninth down a run at 3-4 Gauchos. Billy Marcoe pinch hit for Joe Scott and walked in 4 pitches. Jeff Newman pinch ran for Marcoe. Joey Siddons singled on what was intended to be a sac bunt. Christian Colon sacrified for the team and moved Newman to third and Siddons to second. The Gauchos decided with one out to intentionally walk Gary Brown to load the bases and improve the chances for a double play ball. Josh Fellhauer then stepped up to the plate, and he was so far hitless in this game. The crowd however, had faith in Felly and we were chanting and yelling our encouragment. Fellhauer singled through the right side and Newman and Siddons scored to win the game. The team errupted from the dug out and practically dog-piled on Fellhauer who had run to second base. The fans in the stands went wild. It was a very emotional moment for the team to be able to succeed at play from behind ball.
Sunday we entered the field with optimism having already won the series, was it possible we could make it a sweep? We had our favorite Section K pitcher, Tyler Pill on the mound and Tyler continues to look better and better as the season goes along. Tyler pitched shut out ball until the seventh inning where he gave up a two out home run with two men on (walk, HBP). He finished up the inning, but then was done for the game. Fortunately, Tyler had nothing to worry about as the Titans won the game 15-3 and he racked up win number 8 bringing him to 8-1 overall. While the Titan offense was hot, the Gaucho defense seemed to fall apart a little bit. While only two errors were charged for the game to Santa Barbara, mental mistakes flourished and the Titans took advantage of every opportunity. For example, the Titans managed to score a run in the second with no hits, and no errors committed by the Gauchos. During the games we frequently see the word Everybody Hits on the scoreboard while the Titans are batting. It felt like that was the case as we continued to bring men home. In actuality, we did have some of our batters not get a hit, but still get on base and score. Christian Colon went long for his sixth of the season as well, but that was the only home run scored by the Titans on Sunday. We had 12 hits to earn the 15 runs and I did feel sorry for the Gauchos as they were definitely not having a good day.
