Thursday Thoughts: Stanford 2025

This week’s Thursday Thoughts: Stanford 2025 edition, a little explanation as to where we have been for nearly 10 months. We are committed to being better and bringing you our unique perspective on the 2025 Titan Baseball program.

Thursday Thoughts took an unexpected sabbatical last year following the Jacksonville and Ohio State series in March 2024. As a one-man-band operation, many things came to a head in March of last year that took our time away from Thursday Thoughts.

I serve as the General Manager for the Orange County Riptide, a collegiate summer ball club playing games at the Great Park in Irvine. The Riptide underwent an ownership change in February of 2024, months later than expected. Once the change became final, we had a mad rush to coordinate everything to ensure that the season could start on time and without any major hitches.

In addition, we started training Omaha the Bat Dog to retrieve bats to serve as the official bat dog for the Riptide. You can imagine the time it takes to train a 18 month-old Golden Retriever mix to successfully and predictably serve as a bat girl for a collegiate baseball team. We can happily report she did great, and we learned a lot over the summer to the point Omaha recently became the official bat dog for the Class-A San Diego Padres affiliate, Lake Elsinore Storm.

In addition to that, I also work as an umpire and maintained a full schedule umpiring for both high school and youth leagues in spring 2024. Writing articles and opinion pieces while calling balls and strikes proved quite difficult.

So enough with the excuses and explanations. Staying true to our journalism degree received from the CSUF School of Communications, we will remain committed to publishing on deadline with the same insight and observations you have come to expect.

Join us as we yet again look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly that was the Stanford opening weekend series.

The Results

Overall Record: 0-4
Conference Record: 0-0
Streak: Lost 8 (Dating back to May 19, 2024)
Last 10: 1-9 (Dating back to May 17, 2024)

Offense

Runs Scored: 22
Hits: 29
Doubles: 8
Triples: 2
Home Runs: 1
RBI: 19
Team Batting Avg: .218
On-Base %: .309
Slugging %: .331
Walks: 13
Extra base hits: 11
Total bases: 44
Hit by pitch: 5
Stolen Bases: 3
Strikeouts: 30

Defense

Errors: 5
Fielding %: .966
Double Plays turned: 4
Passed Balls: 1
Stolen Bases allowed: 0

Pitching

Team ERA: 8.74
WHIP: 2.09
Batting average against: .355
Hits allowed: 55
Total Runs Allowed: 42
Walks Issued: 18
Strikeouts: 29
Home runs allowed: 4

Titans of the Week

Winners chosen via Twitter/X poll

Pitcher of the Week

Mikiah Negrete: 6IP – 3H – 0ER – 3BB – 4K – 0.00 ERA

Also considered:

Payton Hawkinson: 4IP – 3H – 2ER – 1BB – 6K – 4.50 ERA
Derek Turner: 4IP – 7H – 1ER – 1BB – 4K – 2.25 ERA
Andrew Wright: 4IP – 5H – 1ER – 1BB – 4K – 2.25 ERA

Vote on the #CalStateOmaha Pitcher of the Week@paytonhawk44: 4IP – 3H – 2ER – 1BB – 6K – 4.50 ERA@NegreteMikiah: 6IP – 3H – 0ER – 3BB – 4K – 0.00 ERA
Derek Turner: 4IP – 7H – 1ER – 1BB – 4K – 2.25 ERA@andrew_wright44: 4IP – 5H – 1ER – 1BB – 4K – 2.25 ERA#TusksUp

— Cal State Omaha (@CalStateOmaha) February 18, 2025

Batter of the Week

Maddox Latta: 6/17 – .350 – 5R – 2RBI – 0BB – 3K
Also considered:
Carter Johnstone: 4/13 – .310 – 3R – 1RBI – 4BB – 4K
Andrew Kirchner: 5/16 – .310 – 2R – 6RBI – 1BB – 4K
Max Ortega: 3/11 – .270 – 1R – 3RBI – 1BB – 1K – 1HR

Vote on the #CalStateOmaha Batter of the Week@CarterJohnston9: 4/13 – .310 – 3R – 1RBI – 4BB – 4K@Andrewkirchner0: 5/16 – .310 – 2R – 6RBI – 1BB – 4K@LattaMaddox: 6/17 – .350 – 5R – 2RBI – 0BB – 3K@_MaxOrtega_: 3/11 – .270 – 1R – 3RBI – 1BB – 1K – 1HR#TusksUp

— Cal State Omaha (@CalStateOmaha) February 18, 2025

The Good

Eli Lopez = ESPN Top 10

Eli Lopez appearing on the line-up card in the No. 1 spot did not take many by surprise prior to Game 1. Lopez led the 2024 team in batting average (factoring playing 75% of the games) with a .300 average. The bigger surprise appeared next to his name indicating the position in the field.

Lopez played second and third base in the opening series vs. Stanford last year but stood in center field for the opening game in 2025. Blame the injuries to normal outfielders Jack Burke (toe) and Cam Burdick (neck) for the new position for Lopez.

It took him a few games to settle into the meadow but made a spectacular diving play that ranked No. 8 in ESPN SportsCenter Top Plays.

DUH NUH NA, DUH NUH NA

Eli making an appearance on @SportsCenter Top 10 Plays! #TusksUp | @elixeli7 pic.twitter.com/tvNcacWwJK

— Titans Baseball (@FullertonBSB) February 18, 2025

Newcomers Contributing

With as many newcomers to the 2025 roster, plenty of opportunity presented itself in the Stanford series. Of the 13 positions players that took an at-bat vs. Stanford, five wore the orange and blue for the first time.

The pitching corps saw more returners on the mound but a few newbies found their way into the stat sheet. Freshman lefty Brady Dockan made the most of his limited time on the mound, lasting two innings on Sunday, allowing two hits, one walk, striking out one and most importantly, not allowing a run.

Chris Hernandez, although not a newcomer because he spent all last year recovering from Tommy John Surgery, made his first appearance in a Titan uniform with mixed results. Another pitcher coming back after even a longer hiatus, Gavin Meyer saw his first action in over two years. Meyer unfortunately ended the weekend saddled with a 21.60 ERA after many fans grumbled Meyer was left in the game too long, allowing Stanford to get back into the game on Monday.

JC transfer Andrew Kirchner looked every bit as advertised, starting all four games and sitting on a .313 batting average heading into this weekend’s series vs. Fresno State. The biggest surprise came from freshman Carter Johnstone who finished the series with a 1.086 OPS and leads the team in total bases (8). His four hits including two doubles and a triple surely helped that statistic.

The Bad

Oh & Four to Start

You never want to open the season winless, especially when you open the season at home and have an additional game instead of the normal three-game series.

Not much else to add other than the Titans have 50+ regular season games and the entire Big West Conference schedule ahead of them. Playing a traditional powerhouse like Stanford can test one’s mettle and the results can go one of two ways.

One way could inspire the boys to prove the doubters wrong and they go out and show they played a formidable opponent the first four games. The other way could expose the team as overmatched and the Titan fans can brace themselves for another long season.

Only the team on the field can choose their path the rest of the way.

The Ugly

Game 1 & 2 1st Innings

The wet and soggy field conditions from the rains earlier in the week pushed opening night to a Saturday double header. The additional day made it agonizing for college baseball fans from both Fullerton and Stanford, having to sit and watch every other college baseball team start their season. Unfortunately, the agony of anticipation soon turned to anguish and frustration after the first two innings in Game 1.

Another surprise for Titan Baseball fans when seeing the Game 1 line-up came with the appearance of Jason Blood’s name at the starter. Blood, now in his third season with the Titans, tabbed the Friday night starter after the last season coming out of the bullpen?

Game 1

Although, Game 1 remains a small sample size, the results turned ugly, early. Issuing a lead-off walk, Blood let up a single and three doubles. The three outs came in the form of a tag out while stretching a single into a double, an RBI ground out and a strikeout. 3-0 Stanford before the Titans swung their bats.

After a 1-2-3 bottom first, the blood letting (no pun intended) continued. A lead off triple, followed by a walk, single, hit-by-pitch, single and another hit-by-pitch and Blood’s day came to an end without recording an out. Derek Turner came in relief and Stanford scored two more runs before Turner could get three outs. 8-0 headed to the bottom of the second in a game that eventually ended 13-1.

Blood’s stat line took a major beating ending his start allowing seven hits, eight runs (all earned) in one inning of work and a 9.00 WHIP and a 72.00 ERA.

Game 2

After a quick turnaround, Game 2 started as inauspiciously as the first. This time, the issues came in the form of fielding errors and not on the mound.

The lead off batter reached on a throwing error by Marcos Rosales, playing second base. A single and a ground out put runners on second and third. Another throwing error by Rosales allowed Charlie Saum to advance to second and allowing two runs to cross the plate.

Mikiah Negrete, last season’s Friday night starter, struck out the next batter, walked the next but a passed ball by Max Ortega allowed both runners to advance to second and third. A single brings in those runners before a fly out ended the inning. Hello 4-0 before the Titans could go on offense.

Without those errors, Negrete had a very good chance to position himself and the Titans for a win.

Looking Ahead

The Titans hit the road for the first time in 2025 heading north to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs. Last season, the Titans hosted the Bulldogs for a three-game series; a series the Bulldogs took two of the three games.

The Bulldogs hold a 2-2 record after hosting a four-game series against BYU to open the 2025 season. Fresno State won the Friday and Saturday contests handily 7-1 and 13-4 but dropped Games three and four 1-7 and 4-6 to the Cougars.

Series History

With roughly 250 miles separating the two schools, you would imagine Fresno State and Cal State Fullerton have played each other quite a bit. These two have faced off 88 times including 11 times in the postseason.

The Titans still hold a historical edge vs. Fresno when they play at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium (20-18) and that could get tested given the current struggles of the Titan Baseball Program.

Schedule

Times listed are Pacific time:

February 21, 2025 (Friday) at Fresno State – 6:05 PM

February 22, 2025 (Saturday) at Fresno State – 3:05 PM

February 23, 2025 (Sunday) at Fresno State – 1:05 PM