Titans Blame Woes on Distractions

FULLERTON —  Cal State Fullerton has played only slightly better than .500 baseball for the last five weeks, and Coach Augie Garrido says the Titans haven’t dealt well with distractions, including being ranked No. 1 in the nation most of the season.

“There have been all kinds of distractions and outside influences,” Garrido said. “The national ranking, possible professional contracts, the chance to play in the Olympics, fans making comments, all those kinds of things.”

Garrido says they unavoidably bring “added pressures.”

The Titans (41-10) begin the Big West postseason tournament seeded fourth in the four-team field, and meet top-seeded Long Beach State (32-21), the regular-season champion, at 7:05 p.m. Friday in the first round at Titan Field.

“Now we need to react to the realities and return to form,” Garrido said in a conference-call press conference Tuesday. Those realities include a fourth-place finish in the conference with a 13-8 record and losing three consecutive conference series to San Jose State, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara, two games to one. The Titans are 7-8 in their last 15 conference games and 10-8 since April 4.

“We haven’t played very well in the conference,” Garrido said. “And we can’t win baseball games the way we’re playing right now. Our players want to win, but it’s about paying the price. . . . Blame me if you want. It’s my job to get them to play that way.”

But Garrido says the Titans have faced strong opposition in the Big West.

“The performance level of the teams we’ve played in the conference has been very high. . . . And we have been outplayed by them lately,” Garrido said. “But I don’t think we’ve played that poorly.”