Jan. 19, 1998
Bears Set to Open Season
Cal Hosts Alumni, San Francisco, Travels to CS Fullerton
THE SCHEDULE: The Bears (0-0) host the Alumni, San Francisco and travel to CS Fullerton to open the 1998 season...
Day Date Opponent Site Time
Sat. Jan. 24 vs. Alumni Evans Diamond, Berkeley, CA 2:00 p.m.
Mon. Jan. 26 vs. San Francisco Evans Diamond, Berkeley, CA 2:00 p.m.
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.
RADIO: KALX Radio (90.7 FM) will broadcast the San Francisco game...the Bob Milano Show will air 10 minutes before the first pitch...SERIES RECORD: The Bears have a 98-26 overall series record against the San Francisco Dons, but lost last year's season-opener, 13-6, Jan. 28 at San Francisco...Cal has a 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) will start off the 1998 season with the annual Alumni Day, Saturday, Jan. 24 at Evans Diamond...the festivities begin at 12 p.m. with a two-hour (or six innings) Papa Bear game (named after George Wolfman, Cal baseball coach from 1955-73)...following the Papa Bear game, there will be a seven-inning game between active (professional) alumni and the 1998 Golden Bears, beginning at 2:15 p.m...the Cal baseball Alumni Day was first started by former Bear coaching great Clint Evans in 1946...this year's Alumni Game will feature several minor league players, with the possibility of current major leaguers Darren Lewis (1988) of the Boston Red Sox and Mike Cather (1991-93) of the Atlanta Braves, among others...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 his experience playing for the USA 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 freshman second baseman Xavier Nady (Salinas, CA), 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, he finished 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 Benito Flores (11-3, 3.09 ERA, transfer from CS Northridge), senior left-hander Erasmo Ramirez (11-5, 4.98 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)...
TENTATIVE LINEUP AND STATS: Here is a look at Cal's tentative lineup and pitching rotation...
No. Pos. Player 1997 stats
10 CF Juan Hernandez, So. .285, 18 RBI, 3 HR
5 SS Brian Oliver, Jr. .364, 36 RBI, 4 HR
11 2B Xavier Nady, Fr. --
45 C Jason Hill, Jr. .215, 36 RBI, 6 HR
33 RF Aaron Gordnier, Sr. .299, 41 RBI, 7 HR
9 1B Jason Dennis, Fr. --
14 DH David Sark, Fr. --
17/30 3B Clint Hoover, Fr./Mike Tonis, Fr. --
6 LF Preston Sharp, Jr. .232, 17 RBI, 1 HR
9 LHP Jason Dennis, Fr. (Mon.) --
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.) --
