Titans to Welcome Back Golden Spikes Winners Jan. 27, 2003 – Fullerton, Calif.
Cal State Fullerton will welcome back its three greatest baseball players
to Goodwin Field on Saturday, Feb. 1, for “Golden Spikes Night,”
a celebration of the Titans’ three Golden Spikes Award winners –
Tim Wallach (1979), Phil Nevin (1992) and Mark Kotsay (1995).
The three will be presented with their Cal State Fullerton jerseys in
a ceremony before the Titans' 6 p.m. game against Stanford. Cal State
Fullerton is one of just three schools (Arizona State and Florida State
are the others) who can boast three winners of the Golden Spikes Award,
which has been presented annually since 1978 by USA Baseball to the top
amateur baseball player in the country.
Wallach earned the honor after batting .391 with 23 home runs and a still-standing
school-record 102 RBI for the 1979 NCAA champions. He was also named to
the all-tournament team at the College World Series. Following the season,
he was selected in the first round of the draft by Montreal and launched
a successful 17-year Major League career with the Expos before making
stops with the Dodgers and Angels. Since his playing days ended in 1996,
Wallach made coaching stops with the Titans (volunteer assistant in 2000)
and California League Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (manager in 2001) before
putting in countless volunteer hours with local high school and Little
League programs.
Nevin earned the honor after batting .402 with 22 homers and 86 RBI for
the national runners-up in 1992. He became the first player since Dave
Winfield in 1973 to earn College World Series Most Outstanding Player
honors from a team that did not win the title. Nevin, who was also an
all-conference kicker and punter for the Titans' football team, played
on the US Olympic team in Barcelona following his collegiate career. The
Houston Astros made him the first overall pick in the 1992 draft, though
it took stops in Houston, Detroit and Anaheim before he found his niche
with the San Diego Padres. In 2001, Nevin was one of just five National
Leaguers to hit .300 or better with at least 40 homers and 100 RBI.
Kotsay earned the Golden Spikes Award after one of the best college seasons
of all time in 1995, when he batted .422 with 21 homers and 90 RBI and
posted 11 saves along with a 0.31 ERA on the mound. His monstrous College
World Series performance earned him Most Outstanding Player honors as
the Titans beat USC for their third national championship. Kotsay, who
still holds career CWS records for batting average (.517) and slugging
(1.103), was named the Baseball America Player of the Decade for
the 1990s and was also named to the all-time College World Series team.
He was a member of the 1996 bronze-medal winning US Olympic team and was
also drafted that summer by Florida Marlins. He is currently a teammate
of Nevin on the San Diego Padres, where he batted .292 with 17 homers
last season.
