FRIDAY, June 4, 2004
It was a beautiful day for baseball. Clear skies and temperatures in the high
70's. The Fullerton flags were flying high and proud in the Goodwin Field parking
lot just before 3:00, when the Fullerton Regional's first game would get under
way. A small crowd of Titan tailgate regulars (Titan Nation, they jokingly
call themselves) had already gathered. Since this game was between #1-seeded
Arizona State and #4 Pepperdine, only a few of the faithful went in to watch
the beginning. The others just enjoyed their afternoon off with some good Titan
talk, barbecue, and red cups full of delicious “apple juice”.
I'd bought a full-session pass so I went on up to the game, fully expecting
to witness ASU blow out a sub-.500 Pepperdine team. What I saw instead was
a game that would have national repercussions and set the stage for a regional
experience I could never have imagined. ASU had gambled and started their #2
pitcher against Pepperdine's nominal ace. This is not an uncommon tactic for
the #1 seed to use against the #4 seed. Some coaches will even go deeper into
their pitching staff. It can be a huge advantage in a four-team tournament.
Not so for the Sun Devils. Pepperdine stayed close until ASU's starter began
to falter in the 5 th inning, and then blasted the Sun Devil bullpen. Final
score: 15-5 Pepperdine. ASU, the top seed in the Fullerton regional and #7
seed nationally, had just been dumped into the loser's bracket of this double-elimination
tournament.
The upset was big news down at the tailgate party and Titan fans now saw a
clear path to the tourney championship. All we had to do was take care of business
against our first opponent, #3 Minnesota, and then Pepperdine the following
night. We'd get to Championship Sunday with our admittedly thin pitching staff
hardly scratched while the team we faced would have their bullpen in a shambles
after fighting their way through the loser's bracket. It seemed too good to
be true, and it was.
The Titans and Golden Gophers sent ace against ace. Jason Windsor, Big West
co-Pitcher of the Year against Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Glen Perkins in
front of a packed house. Titan fans were waving orange strikeout towels that
had been given out prior to the game by the Diamond Club. A table had been
set up in the parking lot for kids to have bright orange F's and elephant heads
painted on their faces. Big kids even got in on the act, some sporting orange
beards and mustaches.
Jason was his usual rock-solid self and the outcome was never in doubt. The
Gopher batters were mystified, striking out 11 times while only managing one
run on five hits. The Titan bats gave Perkins a rude welcome, notching seven
runs on 10 hits in a balanced attack. Final score: 7-1 Titans. Next victim
on the menu: Pepperdine. They'd pulled a rabbit out of their hat against ASU,
but there wasn't a Titan fan among those at the victory celebration who thought
they could do it again. They'd struggled against lefties all season and we
had Ricky Romero on deck. We all knew it was going to be ugly, but we had no
idea how ugly!
SATURDAY, June 5, 2004
Titan Nation was open for business by 11:00 on Saturday with plenty of Titan
fans on hand to monitor the outcome of the elimination game between ASU and
Minnesota. Food and coolers were plentiful, including a case of Carl's Junior
Six Dollar Burger patties provided by Diamond Club recruiter and ex-batboy
Larry Young. While the Titan faithful partied, things were going well inside
the stadium. ASU was winning, but they'd been forced to start their ace and
use their closer for more than three innings. The Gophers went down fighting,
though, ending the game with the bases loaded and the winning run on 1 st .
Final score: ASU 6, Minnesota 4.
Now, all the Titans had to do was to beat Pepperdine and watch them and ASU
deplete their pitching staffs against each other. Things were looking good
for the Titans as painted fans filed in for the 3:00 game under a hot summer-like
sun.
Things started out as expected, with the Titans jumping out to a 3-0 lead
after three innings while pitcher Ricky Romero kept the Pepperdine bats in
check. Things started to turn sour, however, when our right fielder misplayed
a fly ball with two out in the Pepperdine 4 th . Two runs scored and it was
suddenly a 3-2 ballgame. The Titans gained a little breathing room by manufacturing
a run in the 5 th and Romero made that stand up until the Pepperdine 7 th ,
when Cory Brightwell homered over the center field fence. Titan fans are unsure
of what happened in the 8 th . Romero pitched to two batters, walking one and
striking one out. Then he was lifted in favor of Vinnie Pestano to pitch to
right-handed batter Steve Kleen, who walked on a full-count pitch. Ryan Schreppel
then came in to strike out the next two batters in convincing fashion.
The Titans carried their 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth (Pepperdine
was the designated home team). With two outs, Pepperdine had a runner on 3
rd when Nick Kliebert, 8 th in the Pepperdine batting order, shot a single
through the right side of the infield. Tie ballgame. Ryan got us out of the
inning with the next batter, but the Titans were now in a deadlock and did
not even have the home field advantage in this game.
Titan fans were breathing easier after their team scored two runs in the 10
th , but they'd also left the bases loaded. Not good. With one out in the Pepperdine
10 th , Kleen blasted a solo homer just to the right of the scoreboard. Schreppel
rallied against the next batter, striking him out looking, and was one strike
away from victory with an 0-2 count on Chad Tracy before giving up a single
past Ronnie Prettyman at 3 rd . The rest is history. Brightwell came up and
sent an 0-1 pitch over the wall not far from where Kleen's had gone. Walk-off
home run. Game over!
Titan fans filed out in shocked disbelief. That was the kind of thing we did
to other teams. It wasn't supposed to happen to us! Nobody could remember a
defeat as heartbreaking as that in a game as important as that. Furthermore,
the team had just 50 minutes to recover before having to face ASU and Erik
Averill. Members of Titan Nation clutched their red cups with white-knuckled
grips as they sat or wandered with glassy eyes and numb expressions. Anger
seemed to be the prevailing sentiment. People were angry at the pitcher, the
coaches, and even the Titan broadcaster. Large quantities of apple juice were
consumed and food was defiantly thrown on the grill.
Fans were glum about our prospects. Although we still had Mike Martinez going
on the mound for us, he hadn't pitched a complete game all season. This was
his first year as a pitcher and it was believed that he hadn't built up the
stamina to go all the way for us, hard as he throws. We'd have to go to our
bullpen. Having just used Schreppel, only Vinnie Pestano had more than 30 innings
or so and he was coming off a sore shoulder. Nobody else had demonstrated much
consistency. ASU was a strong-hitting team. The prospect of surviving until
Sunday did not seem bright. How would the team react so soon after such a tragic
defeat?
Meanwhile, the Titan coaches were telling the team that if they were to win
this tournament, someone would have to do something special. To their credit,
every single player on that team picked themselves up off the ground and decided
to be that someone. The result, I feel, was three of the most amazing games
in the history of Titan baseball.
The 1200 fans who went home missed the game of Mike Martinez's life, a complete-game
shutout of a team that had only been shut out twice since 1995. Ten hits, seven
strikeouts, two walks. It may not have been a perfect game, but it was the
perfect medicine for Titan fans and a team with their backs to the wall. The
Titan offense got the job done, too, and the result was a 5-0 victory that
gave us back our Sunday.
After the game, the exhausted but happy fans cleared out quickly. We'd gotten
to Sunday and now anything seemed possible. That night the last thing we'd
wanted was to play a double-header. For Sunday, it was what we wanted most.
SUNDAY, June 6, 2004
A good night's sleep seemed to have rejuvenated the members of Titan Nation.
There was plenty of good cheer and grub for the barbecue. Optimism reigned
supreme. People dared to talk about a victory celebration after the second
game and whether we'd host the super regional. Rumor had it that all of our
pitchers had stepped up and told the coaches they were ready to go. We knew
that Pepperdine was also out of pitching and that the Titans were the better-hitting
team. Everyone expected a couple of 20+ run slugfests.
The big question was who our starting pitcher would be. We knew that Pestano,
who had the most innings of those still available, was probably not yet 100%
so it would be between Sarver and Gagnier who had similar numbers but less
than 30 innings of experience each. Since it was well-known that Pepperdine
had struggled against left-handed pitchers all season, the consensus was that
Sarver would start. It didn't really matter much, since we figured that we'd
use a string of our little-used bullpen staff.
Sure enough, Sarver did get tabbed for the start. That was about all that
happened according to expectations, however. Surprisingly, neither team scored
until Pepperdine's David Uribes launched a solo home run over the fence in
left-center. Through three innings, the Titans had only 1 hit off of Brandon
Boesch. I doubt anybody expected a 1-0 game after three innings. Despite the
home run, Sarver kept plugging away. He didn't strike out many, but he didn't
walk many, either. The Waves were making contact, but the Titan defense was
rock-solid.
Then, in the Titan 4 th , all hell broke lose for Pepperdine. Four hits, two
Pepperdine errors, and two hit batters resulted in six runs for the Titans.
That was all Sarver would need as he stayed in there inning after inning, throwing
strikes and daring the Waves batters to hit them. Meanwhile, the Titan bats
had come to life against two Pepperdine relievers, pounding them mercilessly.
Like Martinez the night before, Sarver had stepped up and gotten the Titans
one win closer to the championship by pitching a complete game of his own,
allowing just the one run on six hits. We'd gotten nine fabulous innings from
a bullpen pitcher who'd pitched only a hair more than 22 innings all season. That is
something special!
Down in the parking lot, fans could smell a championship. The Titans had the
momentum and word was that Jason Windsor would start the game. Everyone expected
him to go about two innings to give us a step up and a chance for an early
lead. Other bullpen pitchers could pitch one or two innings each, hopefully
keeping the Waves off balance.
The rest will forever be a part of Titan lore. Jason, on one day of rest,
pitched not two, three, four, or even five innings. He pitched six shutout
innings on only 64 pitches! The overanxious Waves helped him out with a lot
of early-count fly balls and ground outs, but the fact remains that not one
Wave reached base from the 2 nd inning through the 5 th ! All this was accomplished
with nothing more than well-placed fastballs and change-ups.
Jason went to the mound in the 7 th inning only for Titan fans to get a chance
to give him the standing ovation that he deserved. His mother, who'd been watching
the game from The Perch, was crying with joy and pride, receiving congratulating
embraces all around. Another fan was chatting away at me while I was watching
all this and trying to keep my own eyes from misting up in front of him. I
think pitchers' moms go through a special kind of torment, agonizing with each
pitch to the point where they sometimes can't even watch. I sincerely hope
that moments like Jason's mom experienced when the crowd roared its appreciation
for his ironman performance goes to make up for that in some small way.
The Titan bullpen held firm as the Titan batters once again pummeled the dregs
of the Pepperdine pitching staff, failing to score only in the 7 th inning.
Final score: 16-3 Titans.
Two wins to Omaha!
Ira and I decided to have a celebratory dinner at the appropriately named
Elephant Bar in Laguna Hills. While we were eating, I reflected on how this
tournament had been sort of a microcosm of the Titans' regular season. High
expectations at the beginning, followed by seemingly insurmountable adversity,
then ending with unprecedented achievement. There may have been Titan teams
with more talent, but few or none that have been tempered in a crucible of
adversity like this one has. These Titans are a true team in every sense of
the word, each member accepting his role and stepping up when called upon.
The national championship is theirs for the taking.