After taking the first mid-week game of the 2024 season vs. Loyola Marymount, the Titans are 4-3 on the season. The mid-week offered a lot of opportunity to newcomers and those with limited experience after the first mid-week vs. San Jose State was washed out by weather.
Join us as we yet again look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly that was the Fresno State weekend series along with the LMU Tuesday game.
The Results
Overall Record: 4-3
Conference Record: 0-0
Streak:Won 1
Last 10: 4-3
Offense
Runs Scored: 20
Hits: 27
Doubles: 9
Triples: 1
Home Runs: 3
RBI: 20
Team Batting Avg: .247
On-Base %: .344
Slugging %: .368
Walks: 25
Extra base hits: 19
Total bases: 82
Hit by pitch: 9
Stolen Bases: 4
Strikeouts: 76
Defense
Errors: 5
Fielding %: .981
Double Plays turned: 7
Passed Balls: 0
Stolen Bases allowed: 6
Pitching
Team ERA: 3.34
WHIP: 1.44
Batting average against: .273
Hits allowed: 65
Total Runs Allowed: 28
Walks Issued: 24
Strikeouts: 59
Home runs allowed: 3
Polls and RPI Tracker
Polls
D1Baseball: Not Ranked
Baseball America: Not Ranked
NCBWA: Not Ranked
College Baseball Nation: Not Ranked
USA Today Coaches Poll: Not Ranked
11.7 Mid-Major Power Rankings: Not Ranked
RPI
NCAA: No RPI Ranking
Warren Nolan: 88
D1Baseball.com: No RPI Ranking
Titans of the Week
Winners chosen via Twitter/X poll
Pitcher of the Week
Chad Gurnea: 5.2 IP – 3 H – 1 ER – 2 BB – 4 K – 1.59 ERA
Also considered:
Peyton Jones: 4.2IP-6H-1ER-3BB-3K – 1.93 ERA
Mikiah Negrete: 5IP-6H-2ER-2BB-10K-3.60 ERA – 1 Win
Seth Tomczak: 2.1IP-1H-0ER-0BB-3K – 0.00 ERA – 2 Saves
Vote on the #CalStateOmaha Pitcher of the week Nominees:@chad_gurnea: 5.2IP-3H-1ER-2BB-4K – 1.59 ERA@peytonjonesy: 4.2IP-6H-1ER-3BB-3K – 1.93 ERA@NegreteMikiah: 5IP-6H-2ER-2BB-10K-3.60 ERA – 1 W@SethTomczak: 2.1IP-1H-0ER-0BB-3K – 0.00 ERA – 2 S#TusksUp #CalStateFullerton
— Cal State Omaha (@CalStateOmaha) February 28, 2024
Batter of the Week
Eli Lopez: 6-for-13 – .460 – 2R – 1RBI – 0BB – 0K
Also considered:
Cameron Burdick: 3-for-3 – 1.000 – 1R – 0RBI – 1BB – 0K
Moises Guzman: 4-for-11 – .360 – 2R – 1RBI – 0BB – 5K
Jack Haley: 3-for-10 – .300 – 1R – 0RBI – 0BB – 5K
Vote on the #CalStateOmaha Batter of the Week Nominees:@burrrdy: 3/3 – 1.000 – 1R – 0RBI – 1BB – 0K@Moi_3131: 4/11 – .360 – 2R – 1RBI – 0BB – 5K@jackhaley25: 3/10 – .300 – 1R – 0RBI – 0BB – 5K@elixeli7: 6/13 – .460 – 2R – 1RBI – 0BB – 0K#TusksUp #CalStateFullerton
— Cal State Omaha (@CalStateOmaha) February 28, 2024
The Good
Above .500 (Barely)
It may be just one game above .500 but it sure beats sitting below .500. Going 1-2 vs. Fresno State, the Titans entered the mid-week at 3-3 on the season. The LMU win put the Titans at 4-3 heading east to the Keith LeClair Classic.
(Photo courtesy of Don Hudson)
Fabulous Frosh
Coming into this season on the website and on the podcast, we warned that the 2024 Titans would be young and talented but lack experience. The weekend and Tuesday night’s game provided some of those youngsters with added experience and a few of them shined given the opportunity.
Cameron Burdick made the most of his limited opportunity going 3-for-3 at the plate and scoring a run. Although it was a limited sample size of just one game, Burdick made a case for himself to get more playing time moving forward.
The freshmen arms impressed in the early going. Sunday starter Chad Gurnea showed he can handle the pressure and responsibility of getting the ball on the weekend. Gurnea’s line for Sunday ended with 5.2 IP – 3 H – 1 ER – 2 BB – 4 K – 1.59 ERA. That was good enough to get the Cal State Omaha Pitcher of the week honors.
The highly anticipated debut of big lefty Payton Hawkinson came on Tuesday. Hawkinson got the start and tossed two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and striking out three LMU Lions. Look for Hawkinson to get the mid-week starts moving forward or could work his way into the weekend bullpen rotations as well.
Catcher Spot Secured?
Perez got the start on Friday and unfortunately did not have a good night offensively. Defensively, Perez made some mistakes as well. That opened the door for Ortega.
Ortega started the Saturday and Sunday games vs. Fresno State and again on Tuesday vs. LMU. Although Ortega did not have the best offensive games, going 1-for-9 all three days, his one hit did drive in a run, and he walked twice.
We will expect Ortega to move down in the batting order if he continues to underperform at the plate, but his glove work should help keep him starting behind it.
(Photo courtesy of Titan Athletics)
Closer Spot Secured!
Seth Tomczak appears to have locked down the closer role much he has locked down the games late for the Titans this season.
Jason Deitrich has not come out and said that Tomczak is the closer but the short history of the season sure points in that direction. Tomczak owns a 0.00 ERA in three appearances and 4.2 innings pitched. His two hits surrendered compared to eight strikeouts show Tomczak can command the strike zone and more importantly does not shy away from shutting down the game in the late innings.
Getting him in position to have and hold a lead to eventually slam the door in the eighth or ninth innings leads us to the next segment…
The Bad
(Photo courtesy of Don Hudson)
Double (Play) Trouble
The Titans grounded into a combined eight double plays in the Friday and Saturday games vs. Fresno State. The major killer came in Friday’s game when the Bulldogs turned five DPs in a game the Titans could not muster one run.
To add insult to injury, four of the five double plays on Friday ended in the third, fifth, seventh and ninth innings.
Ice Cold Colby
After the opening weekend up on the Farm in Stanford, Colby Wallace looked as though he would carry the Titans offensively. Sadly, Colby went ice cold going 1-for-10 with five strikeouts vs. Fresno State. He did not play in the Tuesday game vs. LMU.
A left-handed power bat, the Titans will need Wallace’s stick to help power the Titans to some victories this season.
Scoreboard Out
Those fans in attendance at Goodwin Field noticed that the video scoreboard was dormant all weekend. Announcements apologizing for it not functioning appeared over the public address system. Those announcements included requests for donations to get it replaced with a more modern video scoreboard like in the north end of the soccer stadium.
The major problem? The video board is so old that parts that have worn out and in need of replacement are no longer being manufactured. We heard rumblings that to find replacement parts, administrators looked on eBay to find used replacement parts.
Break out your check books Titan Baseball fans if you want a functioning video scoreboard. If it is anything like the costs to purchase and install the scoreboard in the soccer stadium it may take more than forgoing your franchise venti latte.
The Ugly
(Photo courtesy of Don Hudson)
Running into Outs
We’ll keep it short and sweet. Although it does not show up in the box score very well, the base running this past weekend was awful. Trying to stretch a simple single into a double or trying to advance on cleanly fielded balls were just a few examples of poor base running from this weekend.
Hopefully the coaching staff addressed this issue this week in practice before going to the Keith LeClair Classic tournament this weekend.
Looking Ahead
The Titans travel to Greenville, North Carolina, home of East Carolina University, to participate in the Keith LeClair Classic. The tournament includes hosts ECU, Purdue and Southeastern Louisiana. Fullerton will play SE LA on Friday, ECU Saturday and Purdue Sunday.
Outlook
This should be a major test for the young Titans to go into a very hostile environment known as “The Jungle”. The ECU fans embrace college baseball, and you know Saturday will be an atmosphere none of these Titans, even the veterans, have experienced before.
Due to expected weather, keep an eye on Titan Baseball official social media channels for the potential of game times moving.