May 29, 2007
SAN DIEGO REGIONAL GAME TIMES:
Friday, June 1
Game 1: No. 2 Cal State Fullerton (33-23) vs. No. 3 Minnesota (40-16), 4 p.m.
Probable Starters:
CSF: RHP, Wes Roemer (9-6, 3.51 ERA)
MIN: RHP, Tom Buske (5-1, 3.02 ERA)
Game 2: No. 1 San Diego vs. Fresno State, 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 2
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of game 2, 4 p.m.
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 8 p.m.*
Sunday, June 3
Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, 4 p.m
Game 6: Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4, 8 p.m.*
Monday, June 4
Game 7: If Necessary...Repeat of Game Six teams, 8 p.m.
* or 50 minutes after the completion of the first game.
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INTERNET BROADCASTS: All of the Regional games from San Diego at Tony Gwynn Stadium will be broadcast live on fullertontitans.com. Join Justin Alderson and Mel Franks as they bring you all the action as it happens.
GAMETRACKER: Follow all the games of the San Diego Regional via GameTracker. Links for Titan game will be posted on the baseball schedule page at fullertontitans.com.
ON TELEVISION: The fine folks at ESPNU will be televising the entire San Diego Regional from Tony Gwynn Stadium. Dave Cohen will be doing the play-by-play with Barry Larkin and Robin Ventura doing analysis. Check your local programming for channels.
CSF REGIONAL NOTES: &\#149; The Titans have now made 29 NCAA regional appearances in their 33-year Div. I history and have not missed the post-season since 1991. The 16-year run is the fourth-longest active streak in the nation. Only Miami (35), Florida State (30), and Clemson (21), have longer streaks. Fullerton has advanced to Omaha 14 times, coming away with College World Series Titles in 1979, 1984, 1995, and 2004.
&\#149; The last time the Titans were absent from Regional play, current Titan Head Coach George Horton was in his first season as an assistant coach to former Head Coach Augie Garrido back in 1991.
&\#149; The last time the Titans failed to advance past the NCAA Regionals was back in 2002 when conference rival Long Beach State shut out the Titans 4-0, eliminating them form the Stanford Regional in Palo Alto Calif. It was also the last time the Titans were on the road for Regional play.
&\#149; Cal State Fullerton has an all-time record of 75-33 (.694) in Regional play. They are 19-5 all-time in games hosted at Goodwin Field and 56-28 in games played on the road.
&\#149; No team has made more trips to the College World Series by winning on the road. Cal State Fullerton has done it with 10 Regional titles and 1 Super Regional title away from Goodwin Field.
&\#149; No 0-2 and BBQ... The Titans have never gone winless in Regional or Super Regional play.
&\#149; The Titans have advanced to the Super Regionals in six of the eight years of the extended playoff format.
&\#149; Fullerton is 13-17 against the other 63 teams in the NCAA tournament this season... 3-3 vs. Long Beach State, 1-1 vs. Pepperdine, 2-1 vs. UCLA, 0-1 vs. San Diego, 0-3 vs. East Carolina, 0-3 vs. UC Riverside, 2-1 vs. Wichita State, 2-1 vs. Arizona, 1-2 vs. UC Irvine, and 2-1 vs. Rice.
ABOUT MINNESOTA: The Golden Gophers (40-16) lost the championshp game of the Big Ten Tournament to Ohio State (4-2) after tying for second in the regular season at 18-9. This is their 28th NCAA Regional appearance (49-52 in NCAA play including NCAA titles in 1956, 1960 and 1964 under Coach Dick Siebert) and 15th under Coach John Anderson. It's their third consecutive trip to California, having played at Long Beach State in 2003 and at Cal State Fullerton in 2004. Minnesota made a Southern California trip in March of this season, going 2-0 at UC Santa Barbara and 1-2 at Pepperdine.
Outfielder Mike Mee was a unanimous All-Big Ten first-team selection. He is the team's leading hitter at .397. He was joined on the first team by outfielder Matt Nohelty (.379 with 23 stolen bases) and third baseman Nate Hanson (.346 with 10 HRs and 51 RBI). Pitcher Josh Oslin (0-2, 2.75, 11 saves) was on the second team and infielder Dan Lyons (.317, 8 HR and 48 RBI) and pitcher Kyle Carr (5-2, 3.56) made the third team. Minnesota is 3-4 all-time vs. the Titans. The home team each won a series, 2-1 -- in '03 in Minneapolis and in '04 at Goodwin Field and the Titans beat Minnesota, 7-1, in the first game of the '04 Regional in Fullerton.
ABOUT FRESNO STATE: Fresno State (36-27) won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title with a 17-7 record and the post-season tournament last weekend in Reno with a perfect 4-0 mark. They pounded Nevada, 17-4, in the title game as outfielder Brian Lapin hit 3 home runs and drove in 7 runs. He hit 5 HRs in the tourney and was the MVP. He was joined on the all-tourney team by starting pitcher Clayton Allison and outfielder Loren Storey. Second baseman Erik Wetzel is the team's leading hitter at .348 followed closely by outfielder Steve Susdorf at .342 with 12 HRs and 65 RBI. Storey is hitting .336 and Lapin is at .329 with 9 HRs and 57 RBI. Allison (10-4, 4.24 ERA) and Justin Wilson (8-5, 3.19) have combined for half of the Bulldogs' victories.
Fresno State was 2-5 vs. the Big West Conference this season, going 0-4 vs. Cal Poly and 2-1 vs. Cal State Northridge. Fresno State and Fullerton were in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association/Big West Conference together in 1975 & 1976 and again in 1985 thru 1992. From 1977 to 1984, Fresno State was in the Northern California Baseball Association and Fullerton was in the SCBA.
Fresno State and Cal State Fullerton are long-time rivals. The Titans own a 49-30 advantage over the Bulldogs (since becoming a Div. I program in 1975) and that includes a 7-2 edge in NCAA play. Fullerton and Fresno State have been in the same NCAA Tournament on at least eight previous occasions -- Fullerton won the 1979 (CSF 1-0) and 1984 (0-0) Regionals in Fresno; both were in Tucson in 1980 (1-0) and Tempe in 1981 (2-0) & 1983 (1-1) when the host schools won; Fresno State eliminated Fullerton at the 1997 (0-1) Regional at Stanford won by the Cardinal; and Fullerton beat the Bulldogs twice in the 2006 Regional in Fullerton. Both schools were in the 1988 College World Series but didn't face each other.
Fifth-year Fresno State Coach Mike Batesole is a Cal State Fullerton graduate but did not play for the Titans.
ABOUT SAN DIEGO: San Diego (43-16) won the West Coast Conference regular season title with an 18-3 record and then bounced back from an opening game loss (6-4) to Gonzaga to pound the Bulldogs, 13-5 and 13-1, for the post-season tournament title and automatic NCAA berth. USD is the No. 8 national seed and is ranked No. 4 in the nation by Baseball America.
The extent to which ninth-year Head Coach Rich Hill has turned the USD program around can be measured in two Fullerton related notes. When USD beat the Titans, 7-4, on March 9, 2004, it snapped a 21-game winless streak (0-20-1) for the Toreros vs. the Titans dating to March 17, 1987. And while the Titans lead the alltime Div. I series, 46-6-2, USD has won 2 of the last 3 meetings including a 5-1 win at Fullerton on March 14 of this season in which the Titans did not get a baserunner until the sixth inning off Josh Romanski, who finished with a 3-hitter. USD has played in two recent Regionals at Fullerton -- a 3-1 loss to the Titans in 2003 and no-meeting last year -- and now the Titans are part of USD's first home regional (albeit at a borrowed yard).
The Toreros have seven regulars hitting better than .300 led by outfielder Shane Buschini (.356 with 13 HRs & 57 RBI) and second baseman Justin Snyder (.354). Catcher Jordan Abruzzo has hit 8 HRs and has 59 RBI to go with a .333 batting average. Romanski, who is hitting .336, is 9-1 on the mound with a 3.16 ERA. Brian Matusz is 10-3 (2.73), Matt Couch is 9-2 (3.60) and A. J. Griffin is 6-1 with a 2.63 ERA and 11 saves.
IMPORTANT POSTSEASON DATES:
Super Regional Sites Announced (ncaasports.com)
Mon., June 4, 8 p.m. PDT
Super Regional Play (ESPN suite)
Fri. - Mon., June 8-10
College World Series Game Times Announced(ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNews)
Mon., June 11, 8 p.m. PDT
College World Series Play Begins June 16
at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, NE
THE DRAFT IS COMING: The Major League Baseball Amateur draft is scheduled for June 7 and 8 with a portion of it being televised on ESPN2 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the 7th. 50 Rounds of the draft will take place for eligible high school and college players. Last year, nine Titans were selected with shortstop Blake Davis going as the highest Titan selected in the 4th round (Baltimore). The Titans have averaged 10 players selected in the MLB draft a year over the past four years.