College Baseball / Bob Cuomo : Titans, Closing In on PCAA Title, Face One of Country’s Top Pitchers

One of the best teams in the country will face one of the best pitchers in the country when Cal State Fullerton plays host to San Jose State in a three-game series beginning tonight.

The team is Fullerton, which has won 17 of its last 20 in boosting its record to 36-14. The Titans are 13-2 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. and can clinch the title by winning two of the three games from the Spartans (8-7, 29-21).

The pitcher is Anthony Telford. Last Friday night, he yielded only 7 hits and 2 walks and struck out 13 in beating Cal State Long Beach, 4-2. It was his fifth straight victory and raised his record to 10-4.

Because he plays for a school that isn’t exactly a college baseball power, Telford, a junior right-hander, probably isn’t as widely known as some of the country’s other top pitchers. His numbers, though, certainly are impressive. Consider:

--His earned-run average of 2.12 is the lowest of any starting pitcher playing in a major conference.

--He has completed 9 of his 12 starts, which says something about his durability. He has also made six relief appearances.

--In 110 innings, he has allowed 82 hits, 33 runs--26 earned--and 33 walks.

--He leads the nation’s collegiate pitchers in strikeouts with 134, averaging 14.8 for nine innings.

--In his college career, he has a 27-15 record with a 3.07 ERA. He has pitched 334 innings, allowed just 114 earned runs, walked only 135 and struck out 370.

Pepperdine swept last weekend’s three-game series with Loyola Marymount, extending its overall winning streak to 16 games and its West Coast Athletic Conference winning streak to 19. The Waves, who had already clinched the WCAC title, are 20-1 in conference play and 39-8-3 overall. Only Texas (49-8), Oklahoma State (43-5) and Clemson (40-9-1) have better records.

UCLA right-hander Randy Hennis had by far the most effective outing of his three-year college career last Saturday when he pitched a two-hitter and beat California at Berkeley, 9-0.

Hennis retired 13 of the first 14 batters before the Bears got one of their two singles. He walked five and struck out six.

It was the first nine-inning complete game by a Bruin pitcher this season, although Hennis pitched a seven-inning complete game in beating Maine, 8-3, at the Minnesota Wheaties tournament four weeks ago.

Unfortunately for UCLA, the Bruins won just one of the three Pacific 10 Southern Division games at Cal and failed to take advantage of an opportunity to gain ground on first-place Stanford, which lost two of three to Arizona State in Tempe.

If the Bruins had won twice, they would be 16-8 and just half a game behind the Cardinal (16-7) with only two weeks left. As it stands, they are 15-9 and 1 1/2 games off the pace.

USC dropped out of contention by getting swept by Arizona in Tucson. The Trojans, who have lost 12 straight to the Wildcats in Tucson, are 10-14.

Three teams are battling for the Northern Division regular-season title. Washington State leads at 14-4, followed by Oregon State at 11-5 and Portland State at 10-6.

Winning the Northern Division regular-season title doesn’t really mean much, though, since the top four finishers play a double-elimination tournament to determine the league’s automatic entrant into the NCAA tournament.

How’s this for doing things the easy way? South Carolina clinched the Metro Conference regular-season title last Saturday without even taking the field.

How?

Well, more than 3 1/2 inches of rain fell in Blacksburg, Va., causing the Gamecocks’ three-game series with Virginia Tech to be canceled.

South Carolina is 13-1. Second-place Florida State completed Metro play with a 14-4 record. The Gamecocks would have lost the title had they been swept by Virginia Tech. The Hokies finished third at 9-5.

As champion, South Carolina gets a first-round bye in the conference tournament to be played in two weeks at the Gamecocks’ Sarge Frye Field.

College Baseball Notes The opener of the Cal State Fullerton-San Jose State series will start tonight at 7. Anthony Telford sometimes pitches the first game, as befits the ace of the staff, but he has also started the third game. If he starts tonight, he will probably be opposed by junior right-hander Longo Garcia, 9-2. If he pitches the third game, he will probably face senior left-hander Larry Casian, 8-1. . . . California had gone 224 games without being shut out before UCLA’s Randy Hennis did it Saturday. . . . Robin Ventura is closing in on the NCAA record for the longest hitting streak. Phil Stephenson of Wichita State batted safely in 47 consecutive games in 1981. He broke the seemingly invincible record of 45 straight games set by Arizona State’s Roger Schmuck in 1971.