Hey guys, pack up your bags. It's time to head to Texas, again!

This past weekend we traveled to Austin for a premier collegiate series against the Longhorns.  This would be the first time the Titans made the trip to Austin since Augie Garrido had taken over as head coach of the Longhorns. For those who don’t know, Coach Garrido won three national titles at Fullerton and put Titan baseball on the map.

Due to a scheduling conflict we were set to play Texas on Friday and Sunday, and matched up with Sam Houston State on Saturday.

Thursday March 4

Travel day.  Fortunately in my long career most of our road trips have gone rather smoothly. For example, we have not had a problem with flying anywhere, and we usually arrive at our final destination on time.  Well, I knew the streak of travel success would end sometime.  Thursday was the travel day from hell.  We sat at our gate for two hours at Los Angeles International Airport due to weather concerns in the Dallas area.  The weather cleared and we finally departed.  One problem, upon arrival it becomes clear that we missed our connecting flight to Austin. This is a problem because it is a difficult task to seat a traveling party of 35 on a different flight.  We had one option which of course was a lovely four-hour bus ride late in the evening to Austin.  The bus straight out of the movie Major League arrived at the DFW airport at 10 p.m.  It was a long ride and an even longer day, but we finally arrived at the Doubletree hotel in Austin at 2:00 a.m.

Friday March 5

This series would be important to the Titans as to how they would match up against an upper echelon college opponent.  We entered Dish-Falk field which was laden with tradition. It was the ultimate college baseball environment.  Everything from the beautiful locker rooms, high quality Astroturf, and educated Longhorn faithful were a college baseball player’s dream atmosphere. We took an early 2-0 lead , but the Longhorns responded with a five-run third inning off Titan ace Jason Windsor. The Titans tried to respond but remained shell-shocked for the remainder of the afternoon. Longhorns win 6-2.

Saturday March 6

We tackled Sam Houston State in the first-ever between the Titans and the Bearkats.  Ryan Schreppel set the tempo for the Titans, hurling a solid eight innings allowing just two runs. The Titan offense erupted and scored in every inning except the second  en route to 12-2 victory.

Sunday March 7

We looked to salvage the weekend series against the Horns and J. P. Howell on Sunday. Unfortunately our quality at bats went out the window. We had two hits and a run in the first, but did not record another hit until the ninth inning.  It is so frustrating when we keep losing due to lack of focus and mental toughness. We wasted a solid outing from Ricky Romero and lost the game and the series 3-1.

This made for an excruciating flight back home to Orange County.

The Titans will stay at home this weekend and take on the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

P.J. Pilittere

(photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton Media Relations Office)