Once again, the Titans began their season with the mighty Cardinal of Stanford. As a fifth-year senior this was my third trip to fog-friendly Sunken Diamond. Since I have been at Fullerton, the team’s record is a disappointing 6-12 with four of those losses coming in the College World Series.

The guys were excited to finally get a chance to play, as Coach Horton would say, “someone in a different color.” We are fortunate to play in Southern California, where the sun always shines. This blessing of good weather may present one of the toughest challenges I have faced as a college player. Year in and year out, pre-season January practice is a many-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week, rigorous development period, preparing us for the long haul of the upcoming season.

The six-hour bus ride to Stanford was rather pleasant. Our new bus has a DVD player, so we watched American Wedding, Major League II, and Pirates of the Caribbean. We pulled into Palo Alto at 5 p.m., and headed straight to Sunken Diamond for practice. It was misty, so the field tarp was on, which meant batting practice in the cages. That night at the hotel, sophomore outfielder Danny Dorn, sophomore infielder Justin Turner and I engaged in an epic battle of Halo on X-BOX. Dornie was victorious as usual.

Friday January 30 - the day of reckoning was finally upon us. It felt like we had just played these guys in Omaha. Well, the game did not turn out quite like we had planned it. We allowed eight runs on just one hit through two innings. Then the cold air and Cardinal bats began to put us away. The final score was 16-3, which looks bad, I know. But this is college baseball, and the scoreboard would be wiped clean the next day.

Left-handed sophomore Ricky Romero gave us a solid start on the mound, but our middle relief failed. We got up off the floor, but still came up one run short and lost 8-7.

We were now sitting on two losses and trying to avoid a sweep. I was very proud of freshman right-hander Lauren Gagnier’s performance on the mound. It was exciting to see a first-year player staring a sweep in the face give his team a chance to win. Our pitching staff pounded the strike zone, but so did the Cardinal crew in recording a 4-1 series-ending win.

This past week was rather strange and unusual.

Coach Horton was determined to get us focused and have us be self-accountable for our actions - both mentally and physically. So he said that practice this week would be silent. No talking, no cheering, no laughing. This was especially hard for me because I’m used to being an enthusiastic leader.

We were looking to rebound quickly at home against the UNLV Rebels. The team was certainly excited to finally play in front of our outstanding home crowd.

The first win of our young season would not come easy. Friday night, we pulled out a 9-8, five-hour, 11-inning marathon. It felt good to get our first win and avoid being labeled as the first Titans team to start a season 0-4.

It was 12:30 a.m. when the game ended, and most of us had been at the field since 3. Luckily, Saturday’s was a 6 p.m. start, so we could at least sleep in a little bit.

Saturday’s game was special - we honored the 1984 national championship team with a ceremony before the game. Our first win certainly relieved some pressure. Saturday, our offense landed and finally put up some crooked numbers. Ricky Romero pitched a solid seven innings, leading us to a 13-1 win.

Attitude day.

Sunday games in college baseball are a test to see which team can remain focused on the task at hand no matter what has happened the previous two games. Our attitude seemed to be in place as we jumped out early and never looked back. It was really exciting to see Jason Windsor close it out in his first outing back from rehab.

We next travel to Arizona for a three-game set against the Wildcats. This will be my first experience playing them.

It looks like the silent treatment is working, so maybe we will continue to use it.

P.J. Pilittere

(photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton Media Relations Office)