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Titans
Tabbed 17th in Collegiate Baseball Poll Dec. 19, 2001 – Fullerton, Calif. Cal State Fullerton's baseball team is ranked 17th in the 2002 Collegiate Baseball preseason poll, while Chad Cordero, Darric Merrell and Shane Costa have been tabbed for preseason All-American honors by the publication. The Titans, who finished with a 48-18 overall record last season and made their 11th trip to the College World Series, finished as the consensus No. 3 team in the nation. The Titans had the second-highest RPI in the nation, based largely on their 27-11 record against the toughest nonconference schedule in the country. The scheduling this year isn't any lighter. Exactly half (28) of the Titans' regular-season contests will come against teams ranked in the newspaper's top-40, with nearly a third of the Titans' games (13) coming against teams in the top-11. Fullerton opens the season on Feb. 1 at No. 1 Stanford, which ended the Titans' season in Omaha a year ago. Fullerton will also face No. 4 Southern California, No. 7 Miami, No. 9 Wichita State, No. 11 Fresno State, No. 20 Arizona State, No. 33 Cal State Northridge, No. 35 Nevada, and No. 37 Long Beach State. Cordero, who finished tied for third in the nation as a freshman with 14 saves, was billed a first-team preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball. In addition to breaking Bobby Jones' Big West Conference freshman record for saves, Cordero had a 1.83 ERA and struck out 63 while walking just 12. Merrell, also a consensus freshman All-American last year, and Costa were named as third-team preseason All-Americans. Merrell posted an 8-4 record along with a 2.95 ERA and was especially impressive in Omaha, where he allowed no earned runs in eight innings against Tulane, which led the nation in wins last season. Costa, meanwhile, led the team with a .380 average, though he was a few at-bats shy of qualifying for the conference race. He also struck out just 12 times in 129 at-bats. Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll 1. Stanford (51-17) 2. Florida St. (47-19) 3. Tulane (56-13) 4. Southern California (45-19) 5. Louisiana St. (44-22-1) 6. Clemson (41-22) 7. Miami, Fla. (53-12) 8. South Carolina (49-20) 9. Wichita St. (42-24) 10. Oklahoma St. (42-22) 11. Fresno St. (41-25) 12. Rice (47-20) 13. Nebraska (50-16) 14. Mississippi (39-23-1) 15. Texas (36-26) 16. Wake Forest (44-18) 17. Cal. St. Fullerton (48-18) 18. Baylor (37-24) 19. Notre Dame (49-13-1) 20. Arizona St. (37-20-1) 21. Florida (35-27) 22. Georgia Tech. (41-20) 23. Mississippi St. (39-24) 24. Ohio St. (43-18) 25. Rutgers (42-17) 26. Texas Tech. (43-20-1) 27. Purdue (32-24) 28. Ball St. (34-23) 29. East Carolina (47-13) 30. Texas A&M (33-27) 31. Oral Roberts (48-13) 32. Georgia Southern (42-20) 33. Cal. St. Northridge (34-22) 34. Louisiana-Lafayette (28-28) 35. Nevada-Reno (30-26) 36. Winthrop (48-16) 37. Long Beach St. (35-23) 3 38. California (34-25) 39. Stetson (43-17) 40. Central Florida (51-14)
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