Head coach Bob Milano
| |
Bears Travel to CSUF for Season Opener
Baseball starts 1998 season on the road.
Jan. 27, 1998
THE SCHEDULE: The Bears (0-0) travel to Cal State Fullerton to open the 1998 season.
Day Date Opponent Site Time
Fri Jan. 30 at CS Fullerton Titan Field, Fullerton, CA 7:00 p.m.
Sat Jan. 31 at CS Fullerton Titan Field, Fullerton, CA 1:00 p.m.
Sun Feb. 1 at CS Fullerton Titan Field, Fullerton, CA 1:00 p.m.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears have an 11-11 overall series record against the Cal State Fullerton Titans...the Bears last played the Titans Mar. 15-16, 1991 at Evans Diamond, losing 8-4 and 12-5...
HEAD COACH BOB MILANO: The Bears skipper, who is in his 21st season at Cal, has a career record of 639-581-4 (.524)...Milano is the all-time winningest coach at Cal in terms of total victories, having passed Clint Evans (547-256 from 1930-54) Mar. 19, 1994 vs. Arizona (15-6)...he earned his 600th career win Feb. 24 with the Bears 5-3 victory over Fresno State...Milano has led Cal to six NCAA Regional berths ('80, '85, '88, '91, '92, '95) and three College World Series appearances ('80, '88, '92)...he was named Pac-10 South Co-Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1992...Milano served as the head coach of 1997 USA Baseball Team that placed fourth at the Intercontinental Cup, August 1-10 in Barcelona, Spain...
BEAR NOTES: The California baseball team (21-38, 4-26 in '97) started off the 1998 season with the annual Alumni Day, Jan. 24 at Evans Diamond...the '98 Bears showed some offensive power by defeating the Alumni, 16-1, in a seven-inning game...Cal pounded out 21 hits against four alumni pitchers...a top hitter for Cal was freshman second baseman Xavier Nady (Salinas, CA), who went 2-for-3 and hit a three-run homer in the Bears six-run fourth inning...other top hitters for the Bears included freshman first baseman Jason Dennis (Concord, CA), who was 3-for-4 with a double; sophomore center fielder Curtis Johnson (Oakland, CA), who was 2-for-3 with a home run and sophomore Ryan Robertson (Orinda, CA), who came off the bench and hit a solo home run in the sixth inning...the Bears tried to play San Francisco in the season-opener Jan. 26, but the game was suspended due to rain after four complete innings and the score tied 5-5... the game will tentatively be continued Tuesday, Apr. 21 at 2 p.m. at Evans Diamond...in the abbreviated USF game, Cal's lead-off batter, Juan Hernandez (Tracy, CA), hit a home run in his and the team's first at-bat of the '98 campaign...the Bears went on to score three runs in the bottom of the first with four consecutive hits off of the San Francisco starter...down 4-1, the Dons battled back and took a 5-4 lead, but Cal came back in the bottom of the third when junior designated hitter Dan Garfin (Kensington, CA) hit a two-out double and then scored on an RBI single by Johnson to tie the contest, 5-5...Nady is currently 3-for-3, and Johnson, 2-for-2, in the suspended San Francisco game...the '98 Bears will be trying to make a return appearance in NCAA postseason play this season after making it to the championship game of the Midwest Regional in Wichita, Kansas in 1991, to the College World Series in 1992 (East Regional champs) and the Mideast Regional in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995...Cal returns five starters from last season, including two preseason All-Americans-junior shortstop Brian Oliver (Antioch, CA), a third team preseason All-American in both Baseball America andCollegiate Baseball, and junior catcher Jason Hill (Alamo, CA), a third team preseason All-American in Collegiate Baseball....Oliver was the Bears leading hitter and team MVP last season...he was also a first team All-Pac-10 selection, batting .364 with 15 doubles, three triples, four home runs and 36 RBI...both Oliver and Hill joined Milano on the USA National Team this past summer...Oliver shined on Team USA as well, batting .333 with six doubles, a home run and 10 RBI in 25 starts...Hill also benefited from playing for the National Team, starting 17 games and batting .281 with three doubles, two home runs and 19 RBI...two more players, sophomore reliever Jon Cuccias (Woodland Hills, CA) and Nady, were invited to the National Team Tryouts in November...Cuccias, a right-handed submarine pitcher, emerged as the Bears top reliever last season as a freshman, finishing the year 2-0 with three saves and had a team-leading 3.38 ERA...at the USA Baseball Trials, Cuccias was 2-0 with a save in 3.7 innings of action...Nady was a fourth-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school, but opted to come to Cal...in the Blue-Gold intrasquad World Series, Nady was 4-for-7 with a double, a triple, two home runs in one game and had eight RBI...at the USA Baseball Trials, he went 2-for-6 with a double and a home run...
CS FULLERTON: The Cal State Fullerton Titans, coached by George Horton (second year as head coach at CS Fullerton, 39-24-1, .617), are opening the 1998 season hosting Cal...top returning hitters for the Titans include junior outfielder Aaron Rowand (.347, 7 HR, 43 RBI), senior outfielder Steve Chatham (.341, 3 HR, 51 RBI) and senior outfielder Pete Fukuhara (.320, 6 HR, 32 RBI)...CS Fullerton's tentative starting pitching rotation is senior left-hander Erasmo Ramirez (11-5, 4.98 ERA, transfer from CS Northridge), senior left-hander Benito Flores (11-3, 3.09 ERA, transfer from CS Northridge) and freshman left-hander Jon Smith...in 1997, the Titans were 39-24-1 overall, the Big West Conference Champions, and went 1-2 at the NCAA West Regional (hosted by Stanford).
CAL BASEBALL GAME VS. SAN FRANCISCO RESET FOR APRIL 21: The University of California baseball team's game versus San Francisco-which was suspended due to rain after four complete innings and the score tied 5-5, Monday Jan. 26 at Evans Diamond-has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Apr. 21 at 2 p.m. at Evans Diamond, with the Dons at bat in the top of the fifth inning.
TENTATIVE LINEUP AND STATS: Here is a look at Cal's tentative lineup and pitching rotation...
No Pos Player 1997 stats
10 RF Juan Hernandez, So. .285, 18 RBI, 3 HR
5 SS Brian Oliver, Jr. .364, 36 RBI, 4 HR
11 2B Xavier Nady, Fr. -
33 LF Aaron Gordnier, Sr. .299, 41 RBI, 7 HR
14 DH David Sark, Fr. -
45 C Jason Hill, Jr. .215, 36 RBI, 6 HR
9 1B Jason Dennis, Fr. -
17 3B Clint Hoover, Fr. -
16 CF Curtis Johnson, So. .239, 10 RBI, 1 HR
34 RHP Jon Shirley, So. (Fri.) 2-7, 5.47 ERA
25 RHP Ryan Drese, Jr. (Sat.) 0-1, 4.50 ERA
9 LHP Jason Dennis, Fr. (Sun.)
|
|
