Finishing the year strong, the Cal State Fullerton Titans won 19 of their last 22 games, including a sweep of their biggest rival, the Long Beach State Dirtbags. During that series, Freshman pitcher, Tyler Pill broke the Titan record for most wins as a Freshman pitcher finishing up at 10-3 during regular season play. The Titans hosted Regionals for the eigth time and have won all but their first. Fullerton’s all-time Regional record is 85-34 (.714) including 26-6 (.813) at Goodwin Field. The Titans NEVER have gone winless in Regional play. They have gone 0-2 only once in a Super Regional (2008) and four times in Omaha (1975, 1982, 1990 and 2007). Since the Super Regional format was begun in 1999, and prior to this weekend Miami is the only school to win more regional tournaments (9) than Fullerton (8) — Florida State and Rice also have won 8. Both Fullerton and Florida State have now tied Miaimi at 9 regional tournament wins, and Rice is battling Kansas St. in hopes to notch their 9th.
The Titans had a great weekend as they cruised through their 31st post season appearance in the NCAA Regionals. To give you an overview as to how the Titans dominated their opponents over the course of the three games played:
- Titans scored 41 runs versus the opponents combined 9.
- Titans wracked up 60 hits over the course of 3 games to the opponents 26.
- 37 of the runs scored were RBI’s vs. the opponents 9
- 14 Titans walked, while the combined pitching staff for the Titans only gave up 5 walks over the course of the 3 game series
- While the Titans struck out 20 times, the Titan pitching staff struck out 24
- The Titan team batting average was an awesome 476, while the opponents hit 248 against the Titan pitching staff
- The lowest Titan starter batting average for the series was Christian Colon with 429
- 6 Titan starters batted 500 or better – Jared Clark (500), Josh Fellhauer (545), Dustin Garneau (583), Jeff Newman (500), Joe Scott (545), & Joey Siddons (500).
Tyler Pill and Noe Ramirez both received all tournament pitching honors, and Dustin Garneau garnered the tournament MVP award. I’m sure the batting average of 583 and having gone 5-5 in the game against Gonzaga didn’t hurt. Khris Davis hit 4 home runs during the weekend, the only Titan to hit the long ball, which brings his total home runs to 16 on the year. He has now put a little bit of a gap between him and the next frequent long ball hitters, Jared Clark (11) and Nick Ramirez (10), so maybe Jared & Nick will try and catch up during Super Regionals. I’d love to see the home run battle of the bats wage on. Needless to say, I am very proud of my Titan team this weekend and hope they take this momentum on to next weekend where they will meet either Louisville or Vanderbilt (the deciding game takes place later today.)
Go Titans!
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LK Gardner-Griffie
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