June 14 , 2007

Fullerton also struggled in league play

Titans have made 15 CWS appearances

GARY HOROWITZ

Oregon State shortstop Darwin Barney said Cal State-Fullerton pitcher Wes Roemer reminds him of former teammate Dallas Buck.

"He's a tough kid and he's kind of crazy in a good way," said Barney, who was teammates with Roemer last summer on the USA Baseball National Team. "When he's on the mound he'll do anything to win."

Roemer (11-6, 3.24 earned run average), a junior right-hander is expected to be on the hill Saturday for the Titans against OSU in the College World Series opener for both schools.

Roemer has recorded 143 strikeouts in 136 innings with just 22 walks. He was a sandwich-round pick of Arizona in last week's Major League Baseball draft.

Much like the defending national champion Beavers, who tied for sixth in the Pacific-10 Conference (10-14), Fullerton struggled in its conference, finishing fifth (10-11) in the Big West.

The Titans extended their postseason winning streak to five games with a 2-1 victory Sunday against UCLA in the Fullerton super regional. They will be making their 15th CWS appearance, and fourth in the past five years.

Fullerton lost 11 of its last 17 regular season games and received an at-large big to the San Diego regional.

"A lot of people questioned whether we should be in the thing and now we are one of eight teams playing for a national championship," Fullerton coach George Horton told the Associated Press.

"We're real excited about the opportunity to go to Nebraska one more time. We have a way of making it back there."

Half the teams in Omaha -- OSU, Fullerton, North Carolina, and Rice - played in the 2006 CWS. The Beavers are the only team in the field that is making a third consecutive appearance.

"Good pitching, just great tradition when you play Fullerton," OSU coach Pat Casey said. "It will be kind of fun. We've got a lot of West coast teams on this side of the bracket."

OSU is in a first-round pool that includes Fullerton, Pac-10 champion Arizona State, and UC Irvine. The other bracket includes North Carolina, which lost to OSU in last year's championship series, Louisville, Rice, and Mississippi State.

The winners of the two double-elimination brackets advance to the best-of-three championship series.

Fullerton has a 2-0 edge on OSU in the all-time series. The schools have not met since 1984.