Hurricanes Knock Wind Out of Titans : Baseball: Cal State Fullerton manages only four hits in 4-3 loss to top-ranked Miami.

The defensive specialist couldn’t come up with a key play. An offense built for speed spun its wheels and ran into two outs. And a team that has feasted on left-handed pitchers all season finally ran into one it couldn’t digest.

For Cal State Fullerton, this all added up to a 4-3 loss to Miami in the College World Series in front of 15,999 rain-soaked fans in Rosenblatt Stadium.

The defeat dropped the Titans (43-16) into the losers’ bracket, where they will play Florida State in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Fullerton beat Florida State, 7-2, in Friday’s first-round game.

Top-ranked and top-seeded Miami, which improved to 55-8 and 2-0 in the Series, has two days off before meeting the Fullerton-Florida State winner at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

For the Titans to have any chance of winning a third national championship, they have to beat the Seminoles once and the Hurricanes twice before Saturday’s title game.

“It can’t be any harder than 1979, when we lost our first game and won the next five for the title, or 1984, when we lost our second game and came back to beat Miami, Arizona State, Oklahoma State and Texas for the championship,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said.

“No one gave us a snowball’s chance in hell in ‘84, but as long as we have an opportunity, we’re going to fight our butts off to keep our uniforms on.”

Sunday night, Miami pitcher Jeff Alkire fooled the pants off the Titans. Fullerton managed only three hits off Alkire (14-2) in seven innings and one off reliever Danny Graves. Two of the hits were infield singles, and the Titans hit only three balls to the outfield.

Alkire walked nine, but there was a method to his wildness. Hardly overpowering, the lefty mixed his fastball, breaking ball and sinker and induced the Titans to hit many pitches just outside the strike zone.

And when Fullerton did hit the ball hard, it was usually at someone. Miami turned three double plays and set a nine-inning Series-game record with 22 assists.

“How do you think major leaguers feel when they go against Tommy John or Frank Tanana?” said Garrido, whose Titans are now 8-2 against lefty starters. “He took our hitting game away from us. He walked a lot of guys to do it, but he was effective.

“He wasn’t wild. Nine walks is misleading. He missed spots, but he never missed inside the strike zone. He either got the corners he wanted or just missed them. It was a tough battle.”

Despite an offense that was missing in action--Fullerton had 15 hits Friday night--the Titans almost pulled this battle out.

Trailing, 4-1, in the bottom of the eighth, Fullerton rallied with two runs on Jason Moler’s RBI fielder’s choice and Steve Sisco’s bloop RBI single. But pinch-hitter Tony Banks grounded into a double play to end the inning, and Graves retired the Titans in order in the ninth.

Miami had broken a 1-1 tie in the seventh after loading the bases off starter James Popoff on Frank Mora’s single, Juan Llanes’ walk, Luis Hernandez’s sacrifice and an intentional walk to Gino DiMare.

The Titans set their infield at double-play depth, with shortstop Nate Rodriquez and second baseman Sisco shading toward the second-base bag.

Hurricane second baseman Dave Berg then grounded a ball to the shortstop hole that Rodriquez, racing to his right, got his glove on but couldn’t handle. The ball appeared to handcuff Rodriquez and bounced off his mitt and into left field, allowing pinch-runner Don Robinson and DiMare to score and give Miami a 3-1 lead.

Even if Rodriquez had fielded it cleanly, it would have been very difficult to turn a double play, and a run would have scored. Rodriquez was charged with an error.

“Nate’s a great player and he’s made a lot of great plays this season, but he had a tough read on that ball,” Titan third baseman Phil Nevin said. “If he makes that play, it would have been a great one. He missed it, but he’s been doing the right thing all season.”

After the error, Chad Dembisky replaced Popoff and retired Johnathen Smith on a fly out, but Charles Johnson lined an RBI single to left-center that made it 4-1. Berg was thrown out by center fielder Chris Powell attempting to go from first to third on Johnson’s hit.

The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on DiMare’s single, Berg’s sacrifice and Smith’s RBI single to right field.

The Titans tied it in the bottom of the first on Sisco’s RBI fielder’s choice, but the rest of the game--until the eighth inning--deteriorated into a litany of lost opportunities for the Titans.

After Sisco’s RBI in the first, Fullerton had runners on first and third with two out. Sisco took off for second on an attempted double steal but was thrown out in a rundown, leaving Nevin stranded at third.

“It was a double steal, but the timing went out of whack once the pitcher threw to home,” Garrido said. “We wanted Sisco to break for second and draw a throw to first from the pitcher. When that happens, Phil is supposed to break for home. But Phil wasn’t supposed to try to score if the throw went to the catcher.”

The Titans put runners on first and second with no outs in the the fourth, but D.C. Olsen, attempting to sacrifice, bunted back to the pitcher. Alkire easily forced Moler at third, and Frank Herman bounced into a double play to end the inning.

Rodriquez singled and was sacrificed to second in the fifth inning, but was thrown out at third attempting to advance on Jeremy Carr’s grounder to short.

The Titans had a chance to take the lead in the sixth when they had runners on first and third with two out, but Herman grounded back to the pitcher to end the inning.

“Alkire was around the plate all night,” Nevin said. “He missed in the dirt a lot, but part of being an effective pitcher is to spot the ball as well as he does. He makes it tough, especially when he’s scouted you so well and makes the pitches to get you out.”