Titans Ready to Conquer the Big West

The Big West baseball race gets underway tonight with Cal State Fullerton, the unanimous favorite of the conference coaches to win the championship, opening on the road against Pacific, which has shown early promise.

It’s a fresh challenge for the Titans, who won 15 in a row between a season-opening loss to Stanford and a 1-0 loss to Pepperdine Tuesday night.

Pacific is 9-3 and has won seven in a row, including a series sweep of Washington State, the Pacific 10’s North Division champion last season. “They have good pitching and good defense,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said.

Pacific’s pitchers have a combined 2.39 earned-run average. Starters Jason Flach and Ron Lewis are 3-0 and Dan Reichert is 2-2. Lewis also is the Tigers’ designated hitter and leads the team with a .359 average. Gus Rubio, a transfer from El Camino College, is hitting .313 with three home runs and 14 runs batted in.

“It’s good from our standpoint that we’re playing Fullerton so early in the season and at home,” Pacific Coach Quincy Noble said. “I think we probably played them about as tough as anyone did last season.”

The Titans’ series sweep of Pacific last year at Titan Field included a no-hitter by Ted Silva.

Garrido’s chief concern is how well his team will snap back after a sluggish performance Tuesday. “I think we were tired, and that game showed that if you’re down, you can be beaten,” Garrido said. “The energy level wasn’t very high Tuesday night.” Fullerton had been on the road six days, playing the Angels in an exhibition in Tempe, Ariz., Thursday and then going to Texas for a three-game series.

The other Big West team that has shown unexpected strength early is UC Santa Barbara, 24-26 last year. Santa Barbara is 15-5 after beating UCLA on Wednesday. The Gauchos have been helped by two transfers, pitcher Seth Bean (5-1, 3.57 ERA) and Ryan Kritscher, who is hitting .418. Catcher David Willis is back and hitting .395.

Long Beach State is regarded as the team most likely to threaten Fullerton, though Coach Dave Snow doesn’t think the 49ers (13-7) are progressing as he hoped.

“I think we’re overrated the way we’re playing now,” Snow said. “We’re moving forward, but it’s more like a slow walk. We don’t start conference play for another week against Santa Barbara, so the next week is an important period of time for us. We’re not playing like an upper-division team in the conference. Our play has been too inconsistent.”

Long Beach State’s top two pitchers, senior Kyle Wilson and sophomore Rocky Biddle, have started slowly. Wilson was 13-3 last season and Biddle was 6-1. “I have been pleased with our bullpen so far,” Snow said. Ryan Brannan, a transfer from Miami, is 2-0 with four saves and a 1.45 ERA. Jason Knupfer (.348) and Jeff Tagliaferri (.343) are hitting well again this season.

Nevada (8-4) also is regarded as a title contender after finishing third last season, 35-18 for the year.

Nevada Las Vegas (15-6) is picked to finish in the first division in the coaches’ poll, though top pitcher Nate Yeskie, 11-5 last season, has been bothered by arm problems. The top four teams in the regular season advance to the postseason tournament, May 10-12 at Fullerton.