NCAA Baseball South Regional : Mannion Returns to Lineup and Delivers

STARKVILLE, Miss. — It was a bit of a strange thing, seeing Greg Mannion on the bench and not in left field during the late part of Cal State Fullerton’s regular season.

True, Jim Osborn and Bobby Jones were hitting well. And, true, Mannion was struggling some. But still, it was odd to see the Titans’ lead-off hitter sitting out. It may have been strangest to watch the last game of the season, senior recognition night, and see that Mannion, a senior himself, did not play at all.

But now, here at the NCAA South Regional, he is back.

After not starting--not even playing--in five of Fullerton’s last six games, Mannion has started both of Fullerton’s games here and has been a big part of the Titans’ offensive attack that has impressed so many here.

In two games, he has gone 4 for 9 and driven in 5 runs--3 of them on a 3-run homer against Missouri Friday.

And he is feeling good.

A couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t so good.

There was a game in which Mannion didn’t run out a fly-ball out, a time that he slung a bat. There was this, or that.

There was enough going on to create tension between him and Titan Coach Larry Cochell.

“He just wasn’t playing well,” Cochell said. “He was struggling, and sometimes you just have to get people’s attention.”

So Mannion sat down. And he didn’t particularly like it.

“I’ve never known a player who said ‘Thanks’ for that,” Cochell said.

But sometime before the Titans came here, things apparently straightened out.

“We had our differences, and at the time I wasn’t swinging that well,” Mannion said. “He just took me out. . . . But he’s not a vindictive person. He’s shown me that a lot this year.”

That didn’t make the time on the bench any more pleasant.

“It was really frustrating,” Mannion said. “I just had to regroup.”

If his statistics in the first two games here are any indication, he has. And he has helped put Fullerton in a commanding position.

“We’re in the driver’s seat now,” he said. “We’re one of the teams playing Monday (the final day), and if we win (today), somebody will have to beat us twice Monday.”

And Mannion knows, that barring injury or other unforeseen circumstance, he’ll find himself in his accustomed spot in left field for all those games.

“(Cochell) has told me he’s going to stick with me, for my bat and my defense,” Mannion said. “That helps me a lot. It gives me a lot of confidence and now I’m just having fun.”