Sophomore pitcher Chad Hockin gave up one earned run from three hits in 2 1/3 innings of work against USC on Tuesday. The Titans’ pitching staff needs to get back to its dominant ways if they are to have a successful weekend against the Stanford Cardinal.
(Amanda Sharp / Daily Titan File Photo)
Cal State Fullerton baseball is looking to get back on the winning track when they face the Stanford Cardinal for the first time since 2011 this weekend for a three-game series starting Friday at Goodwin Field.
CSUF opened the season to a slow start by Titan standards at 1-3 due in large part to a lack of timely hits with runners in scoring position.
Through the first four games of the season, the Titans are batting .200 as a team. Fullerton has stranded 27 runners and struck out 47 times.
“(We need to) put the ball in play,” said Head Coach Rick Vanderhook when asked what the team needed to do to get back on track. “Our opponent has played like 2 3/4 games without even having to catch the ball … just being able to hit the fastball, if they can’t figure it out Friday night, it’s going to be a long night.”
On the positive side, junior third baseman Dustin Vaught is currently leading the team offensively hitting .625 (5-8) with a run batted in and three runs scored so far this season. Also, junior second baseman Jake Jefferies is currently on a three-game hitting streak with two RBIs.
On the mound, the Titans have shown both strengths and weaknesses. Junior starter Thomas Eshelman (0-1) only allowed two earned runs with 10 strikeouts in his season-opening start, but the lack of offensive support proved to be too much. The Titan bullpen has been a wild ride, throwing shutdown innings with 27 strikeouts, but has picked up two losses on the year.
The Cardinal, who are coming off of a winning season that led them to the NCAA Super Regionals, have had their own struggles on and off the mound to start the 2015 season.
Stanford’s season-opening series against the Indiana Hoosiers (2-1) saw their bullpen and defense falter, dropping two close games on late rallies. Stanford’s pitching staff is led by sophomore starter Cal Quantrill, who went 5 2/3 innings in the opening game, allowing one earned run on six hits and tallying six strikeouts.
“I expect we’re going to see probably the top sophomore pitcher in the country on Friday night in Quantrill, who’s got good stuff and he’s going to be about 94-96 (MPH) with some secondary,” Vanderhook said looking ahead to the series. “So we’ll just see what we do and we’re going to get back to work.”
Offensively, they have only been able to produce 10 runs through four games, stranding 29 runners. Junior Austin Barr leads the Cardinal offense, batting .400 so far on the year.
The Titans went 8-2 against Pac-12 Conference opponents last season and are 42-54 all-time against the Cardinal, with their last meeting resulting in a 1-0 Titan loss during the 2011 NCAA Super Regionals.
The three-game Titan homestand against Stanford starts Friday with first pitch at 7 p.m.