June 17, 2007

UCI to take on the Titans

RANDY YOUNGMAN

OMAHA Better early than never.

Cal State Fullerton's George Horton and UC Irvine's Dave Serrano will get whatthey wanted, but not whenthey wanted it.

Dream will become reality Monday when Horton and Serrano, longtime friends and former colleagues, will coach against each other in the College World Series. But, as Horton said Saturday night, "It's not the way we had it mapped out."

That's because the Titans and Anteaters will meet in an elimination game at Rosenblatt Stadium. That means one of their teams will be heading back to Orange County after the game.

Horton and Serrano would have preferred, of course, a dugout coaching duel in Monday's winners' bracket game, but the Pac-10 exploded that scenario Saturday when Arizona State pulled out a 5-4 victory against UCI in the afternoon game and then defending national champion Oregon State held off Cal State Fullerton, 3-2, under the lights.

"Well, we won't have to look at (game) tape or the scouting reports to get ready for Monday," a chuckling Horton said of playing Big West rival UCI for the fourth time this season. "I know their coach pretty well and he knows this coach pretty well."

He was joking, of course, because he and Serrano were inseparable colleagues at Cerritos College and then at Cal State Fullerton, where Serrano was Horton's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for eight years until lured away by UCI after the Titans won the 2004 national title.

Now the mentor and his student will get to coach against each other on their sport's biggest stage, with the ESPN cameras rolling.

"I was just reflecting on that myself a few moments ago," Horton said. "It's bittersweet because one of the two of us will have to go home. ... And one of the two of us will have to carry the Big West flag."

If you're keeping score at home, it was Pac-10 2, Big West 0 on Saturday.

The Pac-10 champion (ASU) knocked off the second-place Big West team (UCI), and the sixth-place Pac-10 team (Oregon State) knocked off the fifth-place Big West team (CSF).

"But whoever gets it done (in Monday's elimination game), I'm confident will give the Pac-10 all it can handle," Horton said.

Dream matchup:In Saturday's first game, it was third-ranked Arizona State, winner of 14 of its past 15, vs. fourth-ranked UC Irvine, winner of 14 of its past 15.

All nine players in both starting lineups were batting at least .300, including eight Sun Devils and six Anteaters hitting better than .330.

A 13-1 pitching ace vs. a 12-2 pitching ace.

On paper, it had the look of a national championship showdown, but it merely was the CWS opener for both teams.

And when ASU prevailed, 5-4 — on the strength of Ike Davis' tiebreaking leadoff homer in the eighth inning, on Scott Gorgen's 119th and final pitch — even Serrano, the losing coach, called it "a great college baseball game."

It featured another first for the Anteaters, in a season filled with historic firsts. This one, however, was a dubious distinction.

Until Saturday, UCI was 41-0 when tied or leading after seven innings.

Make that 41-1.

My apologies:What has California done to the rest of the country?

During the fifth inning of Saturday night's CSF-OSU game, I counted 15 beachballs being batted around in the outfield bleacher seats at Rosenblatt, at the same time.

Ugh.

Parting shot:ASU coach Pat Murphy, who makes about as many new friends as Barry Bonds, actually was very complimentary of UCI after the game.

And he was surprised when he was told Serrano had said his Anteaters "played out of character" during their CWS opener.

"I thought they played really well," Murphy said. "They execute a lot better than we do. They're not done yet. I like their club."