Irvine's road to Omaha differs from Fullerton's

By Peter Yoon

June 16, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

OMAHA — UC Irvine arrived via bus on Sunday, making the 5 1/2 -hour drive through cornfields after winning a super regional in Wichita, Kan., last weekend.

Cal State Fullerton came on a charter flight Wednesday, staying in Orange County for two days after its super regional victory at home over UCLA before lifting off from Ontario airport.

And while the methods of transportation and travel schedules might have been different, they are nothing compared with the way each team has reached this point in the season.

UC Irvine (45-15-1) is the upstart team that nobody knows, a program resurrected only five years ago making its first appearance in the College World Series after completing the best regular season in school history.

Cal State Fullerton (38-23) is one of the adopted sons of Omaha, a 15-time participant and three-time winner of the College World Series that returns despite its worst regular season since 1989.

Irvine traveled far from home and took down Texas and Wichita State, teams that had 46 and 53 wins, respectively, to get to Omaha. Fullerton went to San Diego to face Minnesota and Fresno State then stayed home to play UCLA. None of the Titans’ postseason opponents had more than 40 victories.

Yet they are both in Omaha, both undefeated thus far in the postseason and both preparing to open play today in the College World Series. UC Irvine will face Arizona State at 11 a.m., Fullerton will play defending national champion Oregon State at 4 p.m.

“It doesn’t matter how you get here, just that you get here,” Fullerton Coach George Horton said. “And when you do, everybody starts even. Everyone has the same chance at winning.”

The Titans’ chances of getting to Omaha looked slim on May 27 after they lost their regular season-ending series against Long Beach State. It was their 11th loss in 17 games to end the season and dropped them to fifth place in the Big West Conference -- their lowest conference finish since 1989.

At that point, it didn’t even look as if the Titans would make the postseason. Horton said he had already made vacation plans for June.

“We were maybe dead about a month ago and very anxiously sitting in front of the television on May 28 hoping the NCAA committee would deem us worthy of this opportunity,” Horton said.

It did. And not only did the committee let Fullerton in, it sent the Titans a little more than an hour down Interstate 5 for its regional.

There, they caught another break, avoiding No. 1-seeded San Diego as they swept the regional. They were awarded with a home super regional series against UCLA, swept the Bruins and with only 33 regular-season victories -- their fewest since 1993 -- were back in the College World Series.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Horton said. “There was no reason to see it coming.”

Meanwhile, the Anteaters are making school history at nearly every turn. Their program was cut after the 1992 season and brought back by student vote in 2002. Five seasons later, they set a team record for victories and entered the final weekend of the season with a chance to win the Big West Conference title.

A second-place finish was the highest in team history, and after winning 10 of their last 11 games in the regular season, the question wasn’t if they would get to the postseason, but where they’d be sent.

The news wasn’t good: Round Rock, Texas, where they’d have to contend with Texas, ranked No. 5 in the nation. Twice they defeated the Longhorns and that earned a super regional berth against the No. 8 Shockers. Again they won on the road.

“We didn’t just sucker punch somebody to win the heavyweight championship,” Anteaters Coach Dave Serrano said. “I think we went toe to toe in two heavyweight matches in the regionals and super regionals and we lasted till the last round and we got our hand raised.”

That’s mostly because of starting pitching, a strength of the team. The Anteaters, who have a 3.69 team earned-run average, have given up only nine runs in five postseason games -- that’s a team ERA of 1.40.

Scott Gorgen, today’s starter, has pitched consecutive complete games, winning 3-1 and 1-0 against Texas and Wichita State. Wes Etheridge has not given up an earned run in 17 innings.

“We’re not here because we got lucky,” Serrano said. “We’re not here because it was easy. It was difficult and this team has earned the right to be here.”

Fullerton has earned that right too, though its road has been easier. While Irvine had to get through two teams that were seeded No. 1 in their regional, the Titans have yet to face a No. 1-seeded team.

Still, they have been playing at a level far above where they were at the end of the regular season. The Titans batted .276 and averaged 6.3 runs in the regular season. They are batting .323 and averaging eight runs in the postseason.

North Carolina cobbled together a six-run sixth inning Friday night and defeated Mississippi State, 8-5, in the College World Series.

In the first game, Rice scored six runs in the eighth inning and beat Louisville, 15-10.

Carolina (54-13) meets No. 2 Rice (55-12) Sunday. Mississippi State (38-21) plays Louisville (46-23) in a Sunday elimination game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

peter.yoon@latimes.com

The series

College World Series results and schedule (all times PDT):

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

* Rice 15, Louisville 10

* North Carolina 8, Mississippi State 5

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

* Arizona State (48-13) vs. UC Irvine (45-15-1), 11 a.m., ESPN