FULLERTON, Calif. – Coming off the 40th consecutive winning season in Cal State Fullerton’s NCAA Division I history, the Titans will begin the quest for a fifth national championship on Feb. 13, 2015, part of the 30-game road schedule which was announced Thursday. Overall, the Titans play 56 games in 2015 highlighted by 26 home games and seven weekend series’ at Goodwin Field.
During the 2015 season, the Titans will take on 11 teams that finished 2014 with a top-50 RPI. Fullerton will face three teams that made it to the 2014 College World Series (Louisville, UC Irvine, Texas Tech) along with three other teams that advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals (Stanford, Maryland, Pepperdine) last season. Overall, the Titans will face 10 teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2014; a list that also includes Cal Poly, Indiana, Nebraska and Long Beach State.
THE HOME GAMES: NON-CONFERENCE
Overall, the Titans will play 14 non-conference home games in 2015 including three opponents (Texas Tech, Pepperdine, Stanford) that finished with a top-50 RPI rating. The Titans will also host three non-conference opponents that made the NCAA Tournament in 2014 including two that won a regional (Stanford, Pepperdine) and one team that advanced to the College World Series (Texas Tech).
Cal State Fullerton’s home schedule begins on Tuesday, Feb. 17 as the Titans host longtime rival USC at Goodwin Field. It is the first of 12 straight home games for Fullerton, which marks the longest home stand of the season for the Titans in 2015.
The Titans then host Stanford (Feb. 20-22), Baylor (Feb. 27-March 1) and Texas Tech (March 6-8) in three consecutive weekend series’ with midweek games against Pepperdine and San Diego on March 3 and 10 respectively.
Fullerton and Stanford will face each other for the first time since 2011 when Stanford scored a 1-0 win over the Titans at the Fullerton Regional. The Titans have had won four straight games against Stanford prior to that loss. In 2014, Stanford advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals where they lost in three games at Vanderbilt.
The following weekend, the Titans welcome Baylor to Goodwin Field. The Titans dropped two of three to the Bears in Waco last season.
The Titans take on Pepperdine for the 99th time in the series’ history when the Waves come to Goodwin Field on March 3. Fullerton has won the last three meetings between the teams and holds a 57-41 edge in the all-time series. The Waves won the San Luis Obispo Regional in 2014 and lost to TCU at the Fort Worth Super Regional in three games.
On March 6, Texas Tech makes its first trip to Fullerton since 2001 when the two teams split two games at the Fullerton Regional. Those are the only two meetings in the history of the two programs. The Red Raiders made their first ever trip to Omaha in 2014, winning the Coral Gables Regional and sweeping College of Charleston in the Super Regionals. They won 45 games in 2014, the fourth most in school history.
The Titans wrap up the home stand when they host San Diego for a midweek contest at Goodwin Field on March 10, the first of two games against the Toreros in 2015.
On March 18, the Titans host CSU Bakersfield for the first of two meetings in 2015. It will be the second time the teams will face each other after Fullerton took the first matchup in 2013 by a score of 8-2.
The Titans final non-conference home tilt takes place on May 12 as the UCLA Bruins come to Goodwin Field for a midweek contest. Fullerton has won four straight regular season games against the Bruins after sweeping both games in 2014 but the Bruins famously ended the Titans excellent 2013 season with a two-game sweep at the Fullerton Super Regional en route to UCLA’s first national title in baseball.
THE ROAD GAMES: NON CONFERENCE
Fullerton opens the season at the South Florida Tournament on Friday, Feb. 13 in Tampa, Fla. along with Alabama State and Louisville to face the host Bulls. Official matchups have yet to be determined.
Louisville made its second consecutive trip to the College World Series in 2014 and third in the last eight seasons. The Cardinals finished 0-2 in Omaha, dropping the first game against eventual national champions Vanderbilt and then dropping the elimination game against Texas and former Titans skipper Augie Garrido. The Titans have played Louisville twice before, sweeping the Cardinals in the 2009 Fullerton Super Regional, which was also the last time the Titans advanced to the College World Series.
The Titans have never played South Florida or Alabama State.
On March 13, the Titans will head back on the road for a weekend series against two-time defending Big 10 Conference champion Indiana. It will be the first meeting between the teams. The Hoosiers are coming off back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament, earning the No. 4 national seed in 2014.
The Titans will play eight straight road games beginning with a non-conference weekend series against Long Beach State (March 20-22) and then a trip to Nebraska for a two-game set midweek on March 24-25.
The Titans split six games against the Dirtbags in 2014, taking two of three at Goodwin Field in a non-conference affair while Long Beach State won two of three at Blair Field in Big West play. The Titans will take on Nebraska in a rematch of the Stillwater Regional, where the Titans scored a pair of victories over the Cornhuskers. The Titans hold an 8-0 overall record against Nebraska, but this will be the program’s first ever trip to Lincoln.
The Titans will embark on their longest road swing of the season, playing nine games away from Goodwin Field beginning with a midweek contest at San Diego (April 7). A trip to UC Davis (April 10-12) and a midweek matchup with UCLA (April 14) are capped off with a plane ride east to take on Maryland in College Park (April 17-19) for the final non-conference series of the year.
Maryland advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals last season, losing to national runner-up Virginia in three games. It will be the first ever meeting between the Titans and Terrapins.
The Titans wrap up the road trip with a midweek contest at CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday, April 22. Fullerton’s final non-conference game of the season will come on Tuesday, April 28 when the Titans travel to Dedeaux Field to take on the USC Trojans.
In 2014, the Titans finished 34-24 and advanced to the NCAA Stillwater Regional, where they finished 2-2 and were eliminated by hosts Oklahoma State.
TITANS ROAD SCHEDULE NOTES:
–Fullerton finished the 2014 season with an 11-16 record on the road but won their last five games away from Goodwin Field in the regular season.
–The team’s 30 road games in 2015 will be the most for Fullerton since the 2013 season when the Titans finished with a 26-4 record en route to a 51-10 mark, which ranked as the second best winning percentage in Titans history.
–In 2015, Fullerton will face five teams on the road that finished with a top-50 RPI in 2014, all of which advanced to the NCAA Tournament including a Super Regional participant (Maryland) and a College World Series participant (Louisville).
–The Titans trip to Maryland (2,628 miles) will be the program’s furthest trek to the east coast since 2007 when Fullerton played East Carolina (2,680 miles) on the road for a three-game set.
–Overall, the Titans will log more than 11,000 miles of flight distance for their 2015 road schedule as they hop on a plane to travel to South Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, Maryland and Hawaii.
THE BIG WEST CONFERENCE
The Titans will begin their quest for a fifth conference title in the last six seasons on March 27 when they head to CSUN for a three-game set to begin Big West Conference play. The Titans have won 27 conference titles in school history and boast a dominant 709-249-1 conference record (.739) in 40 seasons.
The rest of the Titans Big West road schedule includes UC Davis (Apr. 10-12), UC Riverside (May 1-3), and Hawai’i (May 15-17).
Fullerton hosts reigning Big West Conference champion Cal Poly for a three-game set at Goodwin Field (Apr. 2-4) for its first home series of the conference schedule. It will be the Mustangs first trip to Goodwin Field since 2012, when the Titans took two of three games.
On April 24, the Titans host UC Irvine for a three-game set. The Anteaters advanced to the College World Series in 2014 for the second time in school history. In 2014, the Titans swept the Anteaters to kick off a seven-game winning streak to end the season and help the Titans secure their 23rd straight bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Titans return to Goodwin Field on May 8 when UC Santa Barbara makes the trip to Fullerton for the first time since 2013 when the Titans took two of three from the Gauchos. In 2014, the Titans defeated the Gauchos in the opening game of their three-game series but the Gauchos responded with a pair of one-run victories to clinch the series.
The final weekend of the season has the Titans taking on longtime rival Long Beach State at Goodwin Field. The opening game of the series will mark the 200th meeting between the teams. Both squads advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2014, marking the first time since 2008 that both teams made it to the postseason.
Rick Vanderhook, the school’s fifth Div. I head coach, has compiled a 54-21 Big West Conference record in his three seasons at the helm and won consecutive conference titles in 2012 and 2013, following in the footsteps of his predecessors; Augie Garrido (14), Larry Cochell (1), George Horton (7) and Dave Serrano (3).
A further breakdown has the Titans winning three PCAA conference championships (1975-76, 1987), eight straight SCBA titles (1977-84), and 16 while playing under the Big West name (1990-91, 94-95, 1997, 1999-2001, 2004-06, 2008, 2010-13). The Big West absorbed the PCAA records in 1990 upon its formation, giving the Titans 19 total Big West Championships and a 533-203 (.724; 32 years) PCAA/Big West Conference record.
2015 Cal State Fullerton Schedule
