FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton opens the 2015 season this week with a trip to the Opening Weekend Challenge hosted by South Florida at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla.
FullertonTitans.com: It was an up and down season in 2014 but the team ended on a nice run before falling to a hot-hitting Oklahoma State team in the regionals. What do you hope the team learned from that season and what lessons do you hope they can carry as we go into the 2015 season?
Rick Vanderhook: It's a completely different team. We have the two starting pitchers and pretty much everybody else has a new role. Jake Jefferies, who struggled to find his groove last year after having a really good freshman year, has assumed the three-hole spot in the batting order. If I could put him in a bottle right now and wait until February 13 I would do that. David Olmedo-Barrera has really come in to the four-hole so with those two guys there; I really think this team has much more speed, playable speed I'll say. They run the bases real good, they bunt a lot better and we have some speed at the top and the bottom. I think we have the two guys in the three and four hole and after that, there's a little flux. Right now there's 17 guys and; we have an idea who it is, but they're still fighting everyday and competing everyday to win jobs and get playing time. I think the difficult thing's going to be keeping them happy. They are an extremely quiet group but they are extremely competitive. They have really developed competitiveness amongst themselves, which I really like. We don't need cheerleaders, we need baseball players and I think we have a lot of guys that can play baseball this year.
FT: Jake Jefferies obviously struggled mightily last season but you've clearly seen something from him in the offseason now that he's solidified the three-spot. What have you seen as far as his growth and the results of the work he's put in?
RV: In the game of baseball, you've gotta deal with failure. I don't think it went as easy for him last year. I think it was his first shot at failure and I think he's learned from what happened and puts things behind him a lot faster and looks forward a lot better. Jake's in his third year in the program now and when he got here there was a lot of things that he didn't understand. Now, Jake helps the younger guys with things they don't understand because he had to live it. That's a big step. I can say that Jake, when he got here, was a hitter. Jake is now a baseball player. He knows how to do a lot of things in the right situations, handle himself on the field defensively and I just look for him to be Jake and go up and take his at-bats, catch the ball and steal a base when he needs to. He doesn't have to carry us; he just needs to be Jake.
FT: Jake is one of the 18 returners on this team. Who are some of the other guys coming back that Titans fans can expect big things from?
RV: I think Olmedo-Barrera is going to be fine. He really played well down the stretch last year. Big hits in big games and we've transitioned him out to left field where he's improving. A.J. Kennedy has really relaxed and I don't think I'm being too far-fetched to say that he could be one of the best defensive catchers that we've ever had. That's big shoes but we have confidence in A.J. going out there and handling the guys and he's really learned and worked hard to learn about them. Tyler Stieb has figured out how to play at this level. Last year, coming out of a J.C. after his freshman year, the game was too fast for him. It's not too fast for him anymore.
FT: Lots of new faces on the 2015 squad. How would you say the new guys have adjusted being a member of the Cal State Fullerton baseball team and playing the game at this level?
RV: Our scrimmages have been really competitive so they've got a taste of the speed of the game. In athletics, every time you move up a level; high school football to college football or high school basketball to college basketball, the game is faster. The field is smaller and so they've started to learn a little bit about that. But, Scott Hurst knows how to hit, Tristan Hildebrandt knows how to hit, Chris Hudgins can really hit and he's getting better behind the plate. You'll see him the first weekend, either behind the plate or as a DH in at least a couple of the games. He has done pretty well and Dustin Vaught has adjusted pretty well to the new level.
FT: The Sunday starter role has been a big topic for Titans fans in the offseason. Who do you see taking the bump for the Titans for the last day of the weekend?
RV: I think Gavin is a true starter, I don't think he's a reliever. Some guys can mix in and do other things but I think John is a starter. For the first couple of weeks we'll run John in that role. He has pitched well in the Alumni game, and in scrimmages. I see Connor Seabold as having a little more of what we call "pitchability." The ability to hold runners and do other things and I think he can come in and pitch in middle relief. We're just going to go and try and win one game and then go on to the next game and the next game and just try to go on as many one-day winning streaks as we can like we did last season.
FT: Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza headline your returners and give this team one of the most imposing 1-2 pitching combinations in the country. How important have those two guys been to the program through their first two seasons at Fullerton and what do you expect from those guys in 2015?
RV: They both came in pretty good. Both of their freshman years I would say are beyond expectations. I'd say last year, we didn't give them a lot of run support and Justin got nicked up for a few weeks in the middle there and then came back and did well down the stretch. Those guys just go about their work and they lead but they are solid in what they do and lead by example. They'll tell guys what they need to do as it goes so I expect them to go out there and compete and give us what they've got.
FT: Various media outlets have pegged the Titans around the low teens and high 20s in the preseason rankings. You've said you like that ranking for this team. Why do you feel that way?
RV: We lost Grahamm Wiest who was a solid guy. We lost Koby Gauna who pitched for three years in a solid role so we lost some guys. But we feel that we have guys that will step in and do it but you've got to prove it and so we have to go out and prove it. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't need to be at the top. It's not where you start it's where you finish so we are prepared to take that approach and go from there.
FT: At the same time, a number of outlets and the conference head coaches' poll have picked Fullerton to win the Big West this year. How do you assess the rest of the conference and where this team stacks up with the rest of the competition in a conference?
RV: I think UC Santa Barbara has good pitching. They've got some guys back like Bates and Tate, Jacome and they have good arms. Coach (Andrew) Checketts is all about having good arms and striking guys out and they do a pretty good job of that. I think Cal Poly's solid. They return (Casey) Bloomquist who, to me, was one of the best pitchers in the Big West last year, bar none. They'll be banged up a little bit early with their second baseman Mark Mathias not being able to play and they lost some important guys too. I think Long Beach will be a sleeper and coach Gillespie at UC Irvine knows how to win so I think the league's going to be good overall.
FT: Lastly, the Titans are hosting Korean team NC Dinos in an exhibition and will also be traveling to Korea to represent the USA in the World University Games during the summer. What does that opportunity mean to you personally as a member of the Titans family for such a long time to have a chance to represent the country at those games?
RV: The Dinos, from what I understand in talking with Brett Pill, are really, really good. They aren't a college team; they're a professional team so we'll have to work off that. It's an experience. Going over to Korea and seeing the different culture and playing against teams from different parts of the world will be a unique situation for us and we'll arrive upon that once it gets there but right now the focus is South Florida and we'll go from there.
