Cal State Fullerton

Barry Faulkner In its third season since returning from a 10-year hiatus, the UC Irvine baseball program has already carved out a spot for itself on the national landscape. But the Anteaters, ranked No. 21 by Baseball America, are finding it much more difficult to establish credibility within a 30-mile radius. With its 11-1 loss to visiting Cal State Fullerton Saturday, the Anteaters (31-16-1, 8-9 in the Big West Conference) are 0-5 in Big West play against the nearby Titans and Long Beach State, both perennial national powers occupying the top two spots in the conference standings.

Dave Serrano, who coached the UC Irvine baseball program to its first Division I College World Series appearance in June, will leave the school to become head coach at Cal State Fullerton, where he played and worked as an assistant coach. Serrano, who compiled a 114-66-1 record in three seasons at UCI, including 47-17-1 last season, a school record for wins, will replace George Horton, who left Fullerton after 11 seasons last week to become coach at Oregon. Serrano had been a candidate at Oregon, before removing his name from consideration Aug. 22. When Oregon hired Horton Aug. 31, Serrano released a statement through UCI stating he had no interest in returning to Fullerton, where he was pitching coach under Horton for eight seasons from 1997-2004.

First a couple of Estancia High baseball players threw out a suggestion during the offseason to Matt Sorensen, their club coach. The idea was for Sorensen to take over the Eagles’ vacant baseball coaching job, the one open since June. “I didn’t take them seriously at first,” said Sorensen, a former successful Cal State Fullerton pitcher, who had never been a varsity head coach anywhere. Why him? Then the moms and dads got involved. The suggestion kept coming at Sorensen as often as the ball during batting practice and he finally took a crack at it. Now Sorensen, 29, is expected to be named the Eagles’ coach, said Principal Phil D’Agostino Tuesday night, making this the seventh coaching change in the baseball program’s last 11 years.

IRVINE — As they awaited the postgame address from Coach Mike Gillespie in left field Sunday at Anteater Ballpark, many of the UCI Irvine baseball players’ heads were down. That’s because, for the first time since 2008, the Anteaters were looking up at someone ahead of them in the Big West Conference standings. Cal State Fullerton moved into sole possession of first place with a 6-1 series-clinching win that left Gillespie, his players, and the UCI faithful among the 1,254 in attendance more than disappointed.

The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball team flirted with history this season, matching the school's best start (16-4) and competing for a Big West Conference crown until well into February. And Corona del Mar High product Eric Glass has had a courtside seat. Glass, who averaged 5.1 points per game as a 6-2 senior guard for the Sea Kings, before graduating in 2002, is in his second season as a manager for Coach Bob Burton's Titans. And while his myriad tasks have included doing laundry and sweeping floors, Glass, an aspiring coach, will be dispensing more than towels and water when the No. 3-seeded Titans begin play in the Big West Tournament tonight at 6 against Pacific.

The announcement, made by the Cal State Fullerton media relations department Sept. 7, hit the UC Irvine baseball program and its supporters like a fastball to the eye socket. For, like the unprecedented postseason run that had just thrust UCI onto the national sports landscape, nobody saw this one coming. Just seven days prior to being named baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton, where he had both played and coached, former UCI head man Dave Serrano had issued a statement disavowing any interest in replacing his mentor and friend, George Horton, who had left Fullerton for a big paycheck and a blank canvas at the University of Oregon.

IRVINE — Shades of Omaha reverberated around Anteater Ballpark Saturday night, echoing alongside some familiar late-inning heroics that propelled host UC Irvine to a 3-2 victory over Big West Conference baseball rival Cal State Fullerton in 12 innings. Just as he had in UCI’s 10-inning win over Arizona State in last year’s College World Series, center fielder Ollie Linton singled to aid a dramatic comeback. Against ASU, the Rosenblatt Stadium crowd was chanting “Ollie, Ollie, Ollie,” as he singled to bring in the winning run. This time, about half of the crowd of 2,608 that remained held their explosion until after he singled in Sean Madigan to erase a 2-1 Titans lead.

The ink circles on calendars and schedules have long dried, some raw nerves have calmed and some of the emotion expected to carry over into the Big West Conference baseball series between Cal State Fullerton and host UC Irvine has been diffused. But even so, few are denying that the return of Dave Serrano to Anteater Ballpark sets the stage for high drama between the two Orange County and conference rivals, who begin a three-game set tonight. Serrano guided UCI to its first College World Series last season, then accepted the head coaching job with the Titans, for whom he played and was an assistant coach.

IRVINE ? Cal State Fullerton Coach Dave Serrano was reluctant to say his Titans had regained what Big West Conference baseball rival UC Irvine had taken from them last season, after erasing a 4-0 deficit to win the rubber game of the three-game series, 6-4, before 2,965 at Anteater Ballpark Sunday. UCI Coach Mike Gillespie, however, didn?t hesitate in saying his team gave away a game in which, for the first five innings, his team had established firm command. ?My first thought is that we let one get away that was gettable,?

IRVINE - There are 24 games remaining in the UC Irvine baseball team's regular season. But after dropping the rubber game of a three-game Big West Conference series against Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, the Anteaters, for the first time since missing the postseason in 2005, may simply be playing out the string. "We're all disappointed, of course we are," UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said after a 5-3 setback to the No. 12-ranked Titans (23-12, 7-2 in conference), who are tied with Long Beach State atop the conference standings after three weeks of Big West play.

ANAHEIM - A combination of locking down, then closing out produced the most important win of UC Irvine men's basketball coach Russell Turner's two-season tenure on Thursday. The No. 7-seeded Anteaters, who had not beaten a Division I team with a winning record this season, upset No. 2-seeded Cal State Fullerton, 65-59, in the quarterfinals of the Big West Conference Tournament at Honda Center. UCI (12-19), which had not opened the conference tournament with a victory since 2008, had lost six of seven previous postseason meetings with the Titans and had allowed 192 combined points in two regular-season losses to Fullerton this season, outperformed the most productive offense in the conference.

IRVINE - UC Irvine men's basketball coach Russell Turner said visiting Cal State Fullerton was allowed to explode to a 30-point first-half lead because the Anteaters never made the Titans feel them. But after feeling close to invincible in the opening 20 minutes - making 21 of 33 field-goal attempts, including nine of 14 three-point tries and amassing a 22-8 rebounding advantage to claim a 56-30 intermission lead - the Anteaters' Big West Conference and Orange County rivals felt something significantly less comforting down the stretch.

FULLERTON - For the first 66 minutes, Wednesday at Cal State Fullerton, it was better to be lucky than good. But the game's most well-deserved goal in the 67th minute proved to be a game-winner for the No. 7-ranked UC Irvine men's soccer team, which came away with a 2-1 Big West Conference victory. The win moves UCI (10-2, 2-1 in conference) into a first-place tie with Cal State Northridge and UC Davis. Both have six points (three points for a win and one for a tie). The Anteaters play host to Northridge, which was idle Wednesday, on Saturday at 7 p.m. After UCI scored when a ball from Jimmy Turner slipped through the grasp of the Titans' goalkeeper in the 13th minute, the Titans cashed in some good fortune of their own, when Michael Denny's cross was deflected by a UCI defender into the net for the equalizer in the 38th minute.

FULLERTON  — Neither coach was happy, though both were, once again, in first place. That was the aftermath of Cal State Fullerton's 2-1 Big West Conference baseball victory over visiting UC Irvine on Saturday before 2,092 at Goodwin Field. UCI (20-7, 4-1 in conference), which pounded the Titans, 15-3, Friday to move a game ahead of them atop the Big West standings, will reflect upon offensive and defensive failures in Saturday's setback. "It's one of those real frustrating ones that is triply, quadruplely   frustrating, because it's so important," said UCI Coach Mike Gillespie, who lamented his team's lack of execution on bunts, hit-and-run situations, would-be double plays, base running, as well as pitchers' command.

Discussion about whether junior women's basketball star Mikah Maly-Karros will play again this season for UC Irvine is ongoing, a source inside the program confirmed Tuesday. Maly-Karros, a 6-foot-1 forward who leads the Big West Conference in scoring at 19.5 points per game, ranks second in the conference in rebounding (9.7 per contest) and field-goal percentage (51.3%). She was not with the Anteaters during conference losses at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last week and she is not expected to play Thursday when UCI (13-11, 5-7 in conference)

FULLERTON — Perhaps the hamstring injury that sidelined Eric Wise Thursday is cruelly symbolic for the UC Irvine men's basketball team. The absence of the junior standout, who had five double-doubles in his previous six games, including a career-high 34 points to go with 12 rebounds in Saturday's double-overtime road loss, is just the latest setback to leave the Anteaters hamstrung this season. In Thursday's 80-74 Big West Conference loss at Cal State Fullerton, Wise's inside presence was missed on both ends of the floor, as the Titans (9-14, 5-5 in conference)

UC Irvine finished tied for second in the Big West Conference baseball preseason coaches poll released Tuesday. The Anteaters received 65 points, matching UC Riverside. Defending conference champion Cal State Fullerton topped the poll with 81 points. UCI, which finished second in the Big West last season, is coming off its fifth straight postseason appearance. Coach Mike Gillespie's squad finished 39-21, 17-7 in the Big West. The Anteaters open the season Feb. 18 with the first of a three-game home series against Nevada.

WOMEN'S SOCCER UC Irvine 2, Arizona State 1 IRVINE — Sophomore midfielder Devon Delarosa scored twice, both on assissts from senior Tanya Taylor, to help the Anteaters rally to win the program's NCAA Tournament debut Friday at Anteater Stadium. Delarosa pulled the hosts (18-2-2) even in the 72nd minute on a rebound off the post. She then banged in a header off a Taylor cross in the 74th minute to send the 'Eaters into the second round. UCI will play host to Wake Forest (13-7-3)

FULLERTON — The UC Irvine men's soccer team clinched the Big West Conference regular-season championship with a 3-1 win at Cal State Fullerton Saturday. The win gives No. 7-ranked UCI (14-2-3, 7-1-2 in conference) the No. 1 seed in the four-team conference tournament that begins Wednesday. UCI, which has won the last two Big West Tournament titles, will play host to Cal State Fullerton in a 7 p.m. semifinal. UCI senior Joel Bagby scored an unassisted goal in the 43rd minute to erase a 1-0 deficit to the Titans (6-11-2, 4-6)