Titans Demolish the Cardinals in 12-0 Shutout

quitcrying The Cal State Fullerton Titans took one giant step closer to a trip to Omaha last night. They faced off against the Louisville Cardinals in what is now being called the game of the Mustache against the Mohawk. For more about the mustache read Titan first baseman, Jared Clark’s, blog # 14 about the power of the ‘stache. The Mohawks, worn by the Cardinals were evident during the pre-game introductions. The entire team had cut their hair, and Denny at first thought that they had all shaved their heads. But, upon closer inspection, I noticed that instead of being shaved, they had actually gone with the Mohawk look. Now, some of the team kept the ‘hawk low, so it was barely discernable from the stands. Others were definitely more prominent, and I think I saw 4 which had gone to the extra length of dying the ‘hawk red – not auburn, but bright red.

During the Regionals, Daniel Renken, who got the start on Saturday, didn’t have his best performance on the year. He seemed out of sorts and perhaps out of sync due to the change in pitching rotation, and he frankly struggled a little bit early on in the game against Gonzaga. Later in the game, he seemed to find his usual groove and became, once again, lights out. Well, there was no question that when Daniel took the mound last night that all indecision and lack of focus had evaporated. In a commanding 3 hit, complete game, shut out, Renken proved that he is a pitcher to beat. About mid-way through the game we were marveling that the first inning seemed to be Renken’s rough inning, because during the course of the inning, he took 11 pitches to get out 3 batters and gave up one hit. He followed that with a 5 pitch second (4 batters faced – 1 hit), and a 3 pitch third – which is as perfect as it is possible to be. Renken struck out 10 and walked 1 giving up only 3 hits during his 98 pitch performance, 70 of which were strikes.

Offensively for the Titans, Jared Clark (4 for 5 with 4 RBI’s) and Khris Davis (4 for 5 with 2 RBI’s) led the way. Extra base hit honors go to Josh Fellhauer (Home Run), Gary Brown (Triple), Joe Scott (Double), Khris Davis (Double), & Jared Clark (Double). Josh Fellhauer also had a sac bunt, and Christian Colon hit a sac fly.

Dustin Garneau, who was stellar during the Regionals, was hitless during this contest. However, on a couple of occasions, he had the bat taken out of his hands, so it’s hard to say whether or not he would have gotten a hit or not. One notable moment was when Garneau was in the box, Khris Davis was on first and stealing second, the Louisville catcher, Jeff Arnold, came up throwing and ended up throwing the ball at the ground. Davis was waved back to first and Garneau called out due to batter’s interference. In the stands we were trying to figure out what exactly happened, because as far as we could tell, Garneau was in the box and didn’t move except to bring his feet together out of the batting stance. Head Coach Dave Serrano was out there immediately to argue the call, but as usual, the call was not overturned. One of the first things we did upon arriving home was to check what happened as we DVR’d the game. It was crystal clear – Garneau did absolutely nothing. The Louisville catcher tossed his mask off with his head (the mask being very loose) and as he came up throwing, his arm hit the mask and the mask went flying out toward the pitcher’s mound and the ball bounced on its way to second base. Jeff Arnold then stood up and pointed at Garneau as he had done something wrong. The umpire bought Arnold’s sell and called Garneau out. Oh well, that’s the way the game goes sometimes. . .of course, you might say that’s a good reason to introduce instant replay into baseball, but that’s an argument for another time.

The Titans and Cardinals face off again this afternoon and the Titans, if victorious, could clinch their Omaha bid. Titans will be the visiting team.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
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