It was another successful weekend for Fullerton as the Titans went on the
road and won 2 of 3 games at UNLV, although the players and coaches have to feel
that they let one get away on Sunday. The Titans were not being able to close
the door on the Rebels to finish off the sweep in Fullerton's first loss of the
season as UNLV won the game in the bottom of the 9th.
The hitting for Fullerton has been outstanding with the Titans averaging
nearly ten runs per game and hitting .346 as a team but the pitching has had
more questions than answers after Wes Roemer and Adam Jorgenson, with the staff
ERA an ugly 6.20.
Arizona is coming into this weekend on a roll, having won their first eight
games this season (all at home) and 13 straight going back to last season, when
the Wildcats won their final five Pac 10 games to end up finishing in 4th place
in the conference at 12-12 but failing to qualify for post-season play at 27-28.
Arizona has a young lineup (4 FR, 3 Sophs) but an experienced pitching staff,
returning all three weekend SP's and their closer. Arizona is starting to get
some notice nationally and would like nothing better than to make their mark by
becoming the first visiting team to win a regular season series at Goodwin Field
since 2004.
LINEUP
Despite fielding such a young lineup with only 2 upperclassmen, Arizona does
have four established players returning. 1B Bill Rhinehart, LF Brad Glenn, CF
T.J. Steele and RF Jon Gaston all started last year for the Wildcats. Rhinehart
and Steele both hit over .300 last year and Rhinehart was 2nd on the team in
RBI's. Glenn led the team last year with 10 HR's. DH C.J. Ziegler is a JC
transfer and the other players around the infield are FR - 2B Kevin Rodland, SS
Robert Abel, 3B Erik Castro and C's Dwight Childs and Daniel Butler. The lineup
for Arizona is primarily RH - Rhinehart, Gaston and Castro are the only LH
hitters.
Arizona has been scorching the ball this season, hitting .367 as a team (with
7 of the 9 spots in the lineup hitting .360 or better) with a .445 OBP and a
.622 slugging percentage. Four players have already driven in ten or more runs
this season - Ziegler, Rhinehart, Glenn and Steele. Rhinehart already has four
HR's and Glenn had a 3 HR game against Utah Valley State. Arizona will play some
little ball depending on the situation, having 10 SB's on the season (5 by Abel)
and 9 SAC bunts (3 by Abel).
With all of the gaudy numbers that Arizona has put up, it must be noted that
they were done against questionable competition - Gonzaga, Utah Valley State and
New Mexico. Also, those numbers were all put up at Sancet/Kindall Field, where
the ballpark improves offensive totals by 20% (according to the Boyd's World
calculations for ballpark effects). Arizona's offense hit 40 points better and
averaged 2.5 more runs per game at home last year than on the road.
PITCHING AND DEFENSE
Arizona has an experienced pitching staff and they have pitched like it,
having an ERA of 2.00 in allowing 18 runs total in their first 8 games, with
opposing batters only hitting .183. Even against the below average competition,
the fact that they have pitched that well at Sancet/Kindall Field is impressive.
The Wildcats have played solid defense, with their infield only committing five
errors and they have only allowed 3 SB's as the P's and C's have done a good job
of controlling the running game. It will be interesting to see how the FR around
the infield handle the pressure that the Fullerton offense puts on infielders to
make plays.
STARTERS Fri SP - Preston Guilmet, RHP (1-0, 1.88 ERA). Guilmet was
only 3-7 last year as a FR but he had solid control and showed his potential by
averaging nearly a K per IP. This year, he has taken a step forward. He nearly
no-hit Gonzaga in his first start, not allowing a hit until the 9th inning.
Hitters have only hit .125 off of him in his two starts. In his start against
Fullerton last year, he allowed 4 R's on 8 H's in 6 1/3 IP.
Sat SP - Brad Mills, LHP (2-0, 1.32 ERA). Mills is a SR and was ranked as the
#7 prospect in the SR class by Baseball America. He stepped up as the staff
leader last year after injuries to Arizona's two best pitchers, Eric Berger and
Mark Melancon, leading the Wildcats with 6 wins. He has pitched very well,
holding hitters to a .163 average in his two starts. Fullerton has seen Mills
quite a bit over the years, including a start last year in which he pitched
well, allowing 2 R's on 6 H's in 6 IP.
Sun SP - Mike Colla, RHP (1-0, 2.08 ERA). Colla is a hard throwing RHP who
struggled as a FR last year but has looked better this year. He had a solid
outing in relief against Gonzaga but only pitched 4 innings (allowing 2 runs) in
his start against New Mexico. Hitters are hitting .156 against Colla.
BULLPEN Arizona has quite a few options in the bullpen, including
David Coulon, LHP (2-0, 1.80 ERA), who was their other weekend SP last year.
Coulon pitched six innings in a midweek start last week and followed that up by
pitching four innings in relief on Sun. Coulon has struggled with his control
during his career but has averaged nearly a K per IP over the past two seasons.
Fullerton has also seen Coulon several times. In four relief appearances against
the Titans, he has allowed 6 R's (4 ER) on 10 H's in 8 IP.
Arizona has several other options in the bullpen - RHP Cory Burns, RHP Brett
Lorin, RHP Jason Stoffel and LHP Paul Bargas. Those four have combined to pitch
20 innings with an ERA of 2.70, allowing 7 R's (6 ER's) on 20 H's with 4 BB's
and 20 K's.
OUTLOOK
Arizona is the best team that Fullerton has played yet and the Wildcats are
playing confidently. If Fullerton doesn't play well in all facets of the game
for nine innings, Arizona has a good chance of taking this series. Fullerton
went 7-2 against Arizona the last two seasons but just about every one of those
games was hard fought, such as the 17-15 series winner and the three Regional
games in '05. Fullerton swept Arizona last year in Tucson but each of those
games was decided by two runs with scores of 6-4, 5-3 and 5-3. Fullerton has to
pitch better and more consistently than the team has the first two weekends of
the season to win this series. If Fullerton's pitchers after Roemer and
Jorgenson step up and the team continues to hit like they have, Fullerton should
be able to win a tough series at home.