Just two years ago, in the 2018 season, the Titans were one pitch away from making their 19th trip to the College World Series in Omaha but before they reached that point, Cal State Fullerton was in Palo Alto, Calif., facing off against the top-seeded Stanford Cardinal in the regional.
It was quite a ride to arrive at that moment and funny enough, Palo Alto is where that ride began. It wasn't pretty, as the Titans dropped three straight games to then-No. 13 Stanford to open the season. The Cardinal played with a chip on its shoulder, as the Titans came in and blew through the Stanford Regional to end the Cardinal's season in the 2017 regional.
After a slow start, it began to come together for ths squad as the Titans rattled off six consecutive victories in league play and won their final seven Big West Conference series to clinch the program's 30th league crown on May 20th at home vs. CSUN with still a week left to play in the regular season. With the 2020 season being canceled, the Titans have claimed seven of the last Big West Championships.
As Cal State Fullerton qualified for the NCAA postseason for the 40th time in program history and for the 27th consecutive season. The Titans began their postseason journey in the same place they began last year's impressive run to the College World Series and the same place they kicked off the 2018 campaign. They were the No. 3 seed in the Stanford Regional, paired up with the second ranked team in the country in the Stanford Cardinal, to go along with Big 12 power Baylor and Wright State.
"We had a lot of confidence going back to Stanford," said shortstop Sahid Valenzuela. "We knew that we could win there. We were used to playing up there. We also knew we were a much better team than the that began the season."
The team should have been confident, they had rattled off wins in 13 of its final 16 games and entered regional play as one of the hottest teams in the country.
To open up the regional, the Titans cruised to a win against No. 2 seed Baylor.
They then matched up against the top-seeded Cardinal and it was a pitcher's duel from the very beginning, as Tommy Wilson and All-American Cardinal ace Kris Bubic each gave their respective teams a chance to win.
Then came the bottom of the ninth, and the legend of Jace "Jumbo" Chamberlin was born.
As if the moment couldn't be any more dramatic, the homer was the first of Chamberlin's career and it came with two outs and a 2-0 count in the bottom of the ninth with no one on base to send Fullerton to the Stanford Regional Championship for the second consecutive year. The mammoth blast marked the Titans' first walk off hit and homer since Timmy Richards hit a walk off homer on March 18th, 2016 vs. Maryland.
�� TITANS WIN ON A WALK-OFF! ��#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/fNRXu8yezi
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 3, 2018
Wilson and Brett Conine were absolutely superb on the mound. Wilson earned the start and tossed 6.0 innings of one run baseball, while fanning six. Brett Conine was heroic in relief, as he tossed the final three shutdown innings and fanned five while surrounding just three hits.
The very next evening, it was the Tanner Bibee show, as he earned the spot start, filling in for the injured Andrew Quezada with a trip to Super Regionals on the line. The Mission Viejo, California native was nothing short of heroic, as he tossed 6.2 innings, while surrendering just two runs and fanning a career-high 11 batters.
For the 14th time in school history, @BaseballTitans are headed to the Super Regionals!#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/UiPXFpgkmS
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 4, 2018
With the regional title, Fullerton earned the right to host Super Regionals at Goodwin Field for the 10th time in program history and for the first time since 2013.
After splitting the first two games, the third was one heckuva battle. The Titans were being no-hit by Washington ace Joe DeMers and trailed the Huskies 3-0 entering the seventh inning. But as Fullerton had shown all season, it may have been down but never out, as fittingly enough, it was Hank LoForte ripping a double down the right field line to break up UW's no-hit bid, extending his on base streak to 45 straight games and his hit streak to 22 consecutive games. The Titans eventually got a run in the inning to trim the deficit to 3-1 and then took a 5-4 lead in the top of the 10th off a LoForte home run. But unfortunately, the Cinderella story came up just short, as two errors led to two runs in the bottom of the 10th, culminating in a 6-5 Washington win to end Fullerton's 2018 season.