Games 11-12
Cal State Fullerton vs. Arizona State
Date: March 8-9
Time: Tuesday at 6 p.m.; Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Location: Fullerton, Calif.
Venue: Goodwin Field
Video: BigWest.tv
Live Stats: FullertonTitans.com
Audio: FullertonTitans.com
Series Record: Arizona State leads 30-27
Games 13-15
Cal State Fullerton vs. Wichita State
Date: March 11-13
Time: Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 6 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m.
Location: Fullerton, Calif.
Venue: Goodwin Field
Video: BigWest.tv
Live Stats: FullertonTitans.com
Audio: FullertonTitans.com
Series Record: Wichita State leads 12-8
FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton is back home this week to play five games in the span of seven nights. The Titans host Arizona State for a two-game midweek series beginning Tuesday and then welcome the Shockers of Wichita State on the weekend for three games.
CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH
Fans attending Sunday's finale against Wichita State can stick around after the game for a chance to get an autograph from the members of the Cal State Fullerton baseball team. It will be the Titans first of two postgame autograph sessions scheduled for this season.
Tickets for all Titans home games can be purchased online at FullertonTitans.com, or at the Cal State Fullerton Athletics Ticket Office, located in the Titan House on campus off of Gymnasium Drive on the northeast side of Titan Gym. Game day sales and will call tickets will open an hour prior to the scheduled time at the specific venue. All Cal State Fullerton students with a school ID get free admission.
CATCH ALL THE ACTION:
Fans can follow the action for all five of this week's games. All games this week will have live stats, audio and video streams available. Links to these can be found at FullertonTitans.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Follow @BaseballTitans on Twitter for daily updates during the 2016 season. Fullerton baseball is also on Instagram, so make sure to follow the 2016 team all season @CSF_TitansBaseball.
HOME SWEET HOME:
The Titans will play 16 of their next 18 games at home. In fact, the Titans will not leave the state of California for the rest of the season after returning from their trips to Arizona and Texas Tech this past week.
WHAT A CLUSTER:
The Titans are in the midst of playing 10 games in the span of 12 days. They played four games in five days during their road trip to Arizona and Texas Tech last week. Monday was an off day but the Titans will face the Sun Devils on Tuesday and Wednesday, welcome Wichita State from Friday-Sunday and play another midweek game next Tuesday against San Diego State at Goodwin Field.
POLL POSITION:
This week, the Titans held steady in the D1Baseball.com poll, reclaiming their No. 23 rank from last week. Fullerton fell two spots in the NCBWA poll from No. 22 to No. 24 this week and dropped out altogether from the Collegiate Baseball poll. The first updated to the USA Today Coaches Poll was released Monday with the Titans receiving votes.
CSF vs. ARIZONA STATE • ALL-TIME SERIES
First Year Played/Last Year Played 1975/2015
Overall Record 27-30
Current Streak Won 4
NCAA Regional Record 7-4
NCAA Super Regional Record 3-3
NCAA College World Series Record 1-1
Overall NCAA Postseason Record 11-8
Home Record 15-8
Road Record 11-21
Neutral Record 1-1
Longest Winning Streak 4 games (03/28/12 to present)
Longest Losing Streak 6 games (06/06/75 to 02/26/77)
Extra Innings 1-1
Most Runs Scored in a Game 18 runs (02/24/79)
Most Runs Scored in a Game by Opponent 19 runs (05/24/81)
Largest Margin of Victory 12 runs (02/10/85)
Largest Margin of Defeat 11 runs (02/08/85)
ARIZONA STATE NOTES:
The Titans host the Sun Devils during the regular season in a non-tournament setting for the first time since 2010. They hosted Arizona State in 2010 for the DeMarini West Coast Challenge at Goodwin Field as the Sun Devils swept two games from the Titans. The last time these two teams played came on May 30, 2015 in a thrilling game at the 2015 Fullerton Regional that went deep into the night and took 14 innings to decide. In the end, the Titans drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 14th to break a 2-2 tie and move on to the Regional Championship game while Arizona State would be eliminated the next day at the hands of Pepperdine.
Other Sun Devils Notes:
• The Sun Devils are coming off a three-game sweep of Eastern Michigan over the weekend, outscoring EMU 25-9 in the three-game series.
• The three-game sweep put an end of a slide for ASU, where they dropped 3 out of four games including a series loss to Long Beach State at Blair Field.
• David Greer leads the Sun Devils with a .390 batting average in 11 games this season. He has three doubles, nine RBIs and a .458 on-base percentage.
• Sebastian Zawada blasted two home runs in Sunday's win over Eastern Michigan and he leads the team with three round-trippers this season.
• Arizona State enters the two-game series at Fullerton batting .291 as a team with six players batting .300 or better this season.
VERSUS THE PAC 12: The Titans currently hold a 288-216-3 mark against teams from the Pacific-12 conference. Arizona State is one of just three teams in the PAC-12 with a winning record against the Titans (27-30). Fullerton has played Stanford on 102 (44-58) occasions and Washington State (5-7) also has a winning record against the Titans. Fullerton's most victories (65) have come against UCLA in 97 games. The Titans have also played Arizona 98 times, holding a 63-35 record.
CSF vs. WICHITA STATE • ALL-TIME SERIES
First Year Played/Last Year Played 1982/2014
Overall Record 8-12
Current Streak Lost 2
NCAA Regional Record 0-1
NCAA College World Series Record 0-1
Overall NCAA Postseason Record 0-2
Home Record 3-0
Road Record 5-10
Neutral Record 0-2
Longest Winning Streak 2 games, 2 times (last from 05/11/07 to 05/12/07)
Longest Losing Streak 4 games (04/25/95 to 03/24/98)
Extra Innings 1-1
Most Runs Scored in a Game 10 runs (03/09/02)
Most Runs Scored in a Game by Opponent 13 runs (03/10/02)
Largest Margin of Victory 9 runs (03/09/02)
Largest Margin of Defeat 9 runs (03/10/02)
WICHITA STATE NOTES:
The Titans play at Oklahoma on Tuesday before heading out west to face the Titans at Goodwin Field for a three-game set.
Other Shockers Notes:
• Head Coach Todd Butler recorded his 150th career win on March 1 against Omaha.
• Sophomore Gunnar Troutwine is currently on a seven-game hitting streak, while senior Mikel Mucha is on a six-game hitting streak and seniors Tanner Kirk and Ryan Tinkham are on four-game hitting streaks.
• WSU is 0-4 in road games.
• In four road games, WSU is hitting .294 with a 10.41 ERA and .966 fielding percentage.
• In four road games, Luke Ritter is hitting .545, while Ryan Tinkham is hitting .385.
• In the last 10 games, WSU is 3-7 and hitting .310 with a 7.01 ERA and .960 fielding percentage.
• The Shockers rank 11th nationally in doubles, ninth in doubles per game, 39th in on base percentage, 31st in walks, 14th in shutouts and 38th in strikeouts per nine innings.
• WSU is 569-214-2 all-time overall in the month of March.
• Freshman Alec Bohm became the first freshman in Shocker history to hit a home run in his first collegiate plate appearance.
• Ryan Tinkham is a preseason second team All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
• WSU plays 35 games in 2016 against teams that were in the top-100 in the RPI in 2015. Twenty-one of those are games against teams in the top-50.
• The Shocks were picked third in the MVC Preseason Poll.
• Senior first baseman Ryan Tinkham, sophomore starting pitcher Sam Tewes and sophomore catcher Gunnar Troutwine were named to the preseason all-Valley team.
• WSU's recruiting class was ranked No. 25 by Baseball America.
• The Shockers welcome 15 newcomers in 2016.
• Two of the Shocker newcomers were drafted in 2015 along with two returners: Willie Schwanke (22nd rd.), Chase Williams (25th rd.), Dayton Dugas (29th rd.), and Connor Lungwitz (35th rd.)
• The Shocks set the school record for times they were hit by a pitch in a season with 73 in 2015.
• Chase Rader was hit by a pitch 17 times in 2015, which ranks third in the Shocker record books.
• Ryan Tinkham had a 21-game hitting streak last season that ranks as the 10th-best in school history.
BLACKJACK:
The Titans have never played any of the other seven teams currently in the Missouri Valley Conference, but will face the Shockers for the 21st time on Friday night. It will be the first match up at Goodwin Field between the two squads since March 3, 2001 when the Titans defeated the Shockers 3-1 in the Kia Baseball Bash hosted at Goodwin Field. This will be the first three-game series at Fullerton between the teams. The only other series was a two-game series on March 22-23, 1994 when the Titans swept the No. 6 Shockers by scores of 3-2 and 5-4 in 13 innings respectively.
TRAILBLASER:
Dalton Blaser had a magnificent series over the weekend at Texas Tech. The senior out of Roseville, Calif. went 7-for-10 against the Red Raiders with one RBI. His batting average shot up to .385 after the weekend, which leads the team. Blaser recorded three straight multi-hit games, including his first career three-hit day Sunday and now has four this season to lead the team. Blaser also leads the team with a .467 on-base percentage and has reached base safely in seven straight games.
NOT SO TINY TIM:
Timmy Richards blasted his first home run of the season in Sunday's win over the Red Raiders, a leadoff bomb over the left-center field wall. It was the first leadoff home run by a Titans player since Matt Chapman went deep in the first at-bat of the game on April 18, 2014 at Cal Poly. Richards is riding a four-game hitting streak going into the Arizona State midweek series and is batting .348 in six games since returning from his quad injury that forced him to miss the opening series at Stanford. He has also swiped four stolen bases, all of them coming at Texas Tech.
PINKSTON BUSTS OUT OF SLUMP:
After getting a hit in the first four games of the season, Tanner Pinkston's bat fell off a cliff as the first baseman endured an 0-for-15 slump before breaking out of it in a big way at Texas Tech. Pinkston batted .600 (6-for-10) against the Red Raiders with a double and three RBIs. He also walked three times to post a .692 on-base percentage at Texas Tech and tallied two straight multi-hit games to close out the series. He is in the midst of a three-game hitting streak.
QUINN NOTCHES CAREER HIGH:
Junior right-hander Blake Quinn had a solid outing Friday night against Texas Tech. Facing a team that entered the game with a .325 collective batting average and seven players with .300-plus batting averages, the Titans Friday-night starter allowed just one baserunner in the first five innings of play. He worked into the sixth inning and struck out 10 batters, setting a new career best for the second straight start.
FRESHMAN SENSATION:
Freshman Colton Eastman has been outstanding for the Titans as the Sunday starter, recording wins in his first three games. Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza were the last freshmen to accomplish that feat in 2013. Eastman is currently 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA and is second on the team with 17 strikeouts. He's allowed just three walks and 13 hits in 19 innings pitched and opposing batters are hitting .197 against him.
