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Sports

Alumni Report: Springtime's Diamonds Are a Fan's Best Friend

The ping of the aluminum bat tells us it's time to take a look at South Orange County products on college baseball and softball rosters.

Days are getting longer. Temperatures are a little warmer. And perhaps most indicative of spring’s imminent arrival is the return of baseball and softball.

The NCAA Division I season officially got under way Feb. 18 for early birds, and Friday for everyone else. Cal State Fullerton opened its season with a home loss to North Carolina, followed by two victories in three games over rival Long Beach State before heading to Forth Worth, Texas, for a three-game series against TCU, ranked No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches' preseason poll.

Sophomore outfielder Austin Kingsolver (Dana Point/Dana Hills High) said he chose Fullerton, ranked No. 9, for the chance to play in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

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“Fullerton’s a top program and there‘s just so much tradition here with the four national championships,” he said. “[The current corps of Titans] want to continue that.”

Through five games he has three hits and has scored two runs. He said he hopes his strenuous off-season regime will pay dividends.

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“[The offseason] was about putting in extra time in the batting cage, in the weight room," Kingsolver said. "[The Titans] are working on being the best team we can.”

The Titans return to Goodwin Field on Tuesday night for a game against Loyola Marymount, followed by games Friday and Saturday night against USC. Fullerton travels to the Troajns' campus for a game on March 6.

Big West Conference rival UC Irvine is off to a 5-0 start after dumping Southern 7-1 Friday. Third baseman Drew Hillman (Lake Forest/El Toro High/Orange Coast College) is batting .400 with five RBI for the Anteaters, who should enter the USA Today/ESPN rankings should they finish the weekend strong against Bethune-Cookman and Grambling State, the latter game today at 1 p.m. at Anteater Ballpark.

Currently occupying the No. 25 spot in the rankngs is Arizona. Kyle Simon (Los Alamitos) has pitched the Wildcats (3-1) to one of their victories. Simon went 7 2/3 innings and struck out 13 in a 12-1 rout of North Dakota State on Feb. 19 in the second game of a three-game sweep.

Arizona suffered its first defeat Friday at Long Beach State. Kyle Friedrichs (San Clemente) did not see action against Arizona. The 49ers' freshman right-hander has thrown two innings on the season but has been roughed up for three hits and three earned runs.

Top-ranked UCLA, which fell one run short of winning the 2010 College World Series, played in Omaha without junior Tyler Rahmatulla (Mission Viejo/Mater Dei High). The junior broke his hand during last year's Super Regional victory over Cal State Fullerton.

Rahmatulla has returned strong for a Bruin team off to a 4-0 start, bringing a versatile offensive style to the diamond. He  has two RBI and three stolen bases heading into a weekend series at home against San Jose State, picking up where he left off during his All-Pac 10 season in 2010.

Bruins senior outfielder Chris Giovinazzo (Laguna Hills) is batting .250 with two RBI, but red-shirt junior pitcher Brandon Lodge (Coto de Caza/Tesoro) has yet to see any playing time this season.

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Three softball teams from the Pac-10 ranked in the top 10 nationally by ESPN.com are in the Palm Springs area for this weekend’s Cathedral City Classic. The tournament is among the nation’s largest invitationals, drawing more than 30 teams.

Top-ranked Arizona (10-1) is led by senior outfielder Brittany Lastrapes (Laguna Niguel/Laguna Hills High), who is batting .485 with five home runs.

Coto de Caza's Dani Yudin (Coto de Caza/Tesoro High) has five hits and a home run in three appearances for third-ranked UCLA (10-2), the defending national champion. The junior, who hit nine round-trippers and batted .336 last season, is nursing a leg injury suffered last week against Utah State.

Washington junior Niki Williams (Misson Viejo/El Toro High), whose Huskies were the 2009 national champions, had three hits and three RBI in three at-bats during a 14-2 rout of Cal State Fullerton on Friday.

Another team playing in the desert this weekend is UC Santa Barbara, whose sophomore infielder Tiffany Corder (San Clemente) has scored three runs for the Gauchos, who dropped their first two tournament games to Oklahoma State, 9-1, and to powerhouse Tennessee, 2-0, on Thursday.

UCSB’s Big West Conference rival Cal Poly San Luis Obispo lost its tournament opener to No. 11 Texas, 9-0. Mustangs senior pitcher Anna Cahn (Los Alamitos) came on in relief and struck out a batter.

Loyola Marymount also dropped its tournament opener, 7-2, to Tennessee. Meghan Harman (Trabuco Canyon/Santa Margarita High) has four RBI on the season, third most on the team.

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Is there a local alum we should know about? Contact Kyle Kensing at kkensing@gmail.com.

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