Titans’ Harkey Wins Pitching Duel

They came toting suitcases, filling the stands of UC Irvine’s Anteater Field with enough radar equipment to land a plane. They came to see The Prospect--Cal State Fullerton pitcher Mike Harkey.

The amateur baseball tabloids have been calling Harkey the No. 1 prospect in the country and a certainty to go quickly in professional baseball’s June draft. The junior right-hander was on the mound for Friday night’s Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game against the Anteaters, with the eyes of a dozen or so scouts and their radar guns focused upon him.

While the scouts were in the neighborhood, Irvine pitcher Gabby Rodriguez figured he’d give them a chance to see some of his stuff. And, were it not for one costly mistake, he might have outpitched The Prospect.

But that one mistake resulted in Mark Baca’s two-run home run in the fifth inning, and that was the difference in Fullerton’s 3-2 victory in front of an estimated 500.

Baca’s home run, his second in two games, gave the Titans their ninth straight victory and made a winner of Harkey (6-2). Harkey struggled somewhat in the first two innings, but settled down to retire 12 straight and give Fullerton (10-1, 31-12) a chance to find a solution to the Rodriguez mystery. After a two-out walk to Mark Razook, one of only three walks Rodriguez issued, Baca found it with one swing.

“I just wanted to hit it somewhere,” Baca said. “I got enough of it to get it out.”

Rodriguez, who finished with a career-high nine strikeouts, allowed seven hits in the loss, which dropped his record to 5-4. It was a performance Irvine Coach Mike Gerakos could find few faults with.

“Gabby threw exceptionally well,” Gerakos said. “He deserved a better fate, but it wasn’t to be. He was looking forward to tonight, and I thought he handled it exceptionally well.”

And what of The Prospect? After an errant pickoff throw for a two-base error in the first inning and a little help from his friends in the second, Harkey finished with a five-hitter, striking out five and retiring 12 in a row at one point to pitch his seventh complete game of the season.

“My control was a little off early,” Harkey said. “I tried to be tricky with them, then I found out I didn’t have to. They hit a lot of balls hard, but I had a couple of good plays made behind me.”

Harkey was aided by what was surely the defensive play of the game, a diving catch by right fielder Ken Garcia in the second inning. With runners at first and second, Frank Spates drove a Harkey pitch deep to right. Garcia headed for the wall, and made a sprawling, back-handed catch to save at least two runs. Chris Gallego followed with a run-scoring single that gave Irvine a 2-0 lead, but Harkey retired Mark Webster on a ground ball back to the mound.

Augie Garrido, Fullerton coach, said: “When I look back at last year (when Baca was at Cypress College), I think one of the things that made me a Mark Baca fan was when I’d pick up the paper and see, ‘Mark Baca homers in ninth,’ or ‘Baca wins it in the 10th.’

“It just seemed like he did it over and over again.