Baseball looking for frosh start to season
Five freshmen to
start for UCLA
in home opener
By Ruben Gutierrez
After returning from a three-game road trip to Hawaii with two
victories under its belt, the UCLA baseball team opens its home
season with a game against San Diego State this afternoon at Jackie
Robinson Stadium.
Coming off a dismal 22-36 overall record and an 11-19 Pac-Six
record, UCLA demonstrated its desire for a winning campaign this
season by participating in voluntary off-season workouts.
"Since I have been here, I would have to rank it as the top
off-season we’ve ever had, particularly under the new rules where
you’re limited so much," UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. "It’s the
first team that has ever come back early, before school even
started, and worked out on its own. The off-season work was not
limited to merely batting practice, either. In addition to the
regular hitting work, the team also performed defensive drills
while the pitchers threw.
Although the team lost key personnel, such as outfielder David
Roberts, UCLA’s career stolen base leader, this year’s edition of
UCLA baseball is bolstered by the presence of an outstanding
incoming freshman class.
The class features no fewer than five starters, among them Eric
Byrnes in right field, Brett Nista at second base, Peter Zamora at
first base, pitcher Jim Parque and Troy Glaus, who began the season
at third base but will be moved to shortstop while three-year
starter Gar Vallone nurses an arm injury.
Parque will be the starting pitcher today against the
Aztecs.
"We’ll have five freshman starting, which is a little unusual
for a major Division I school," Adams said. "But they are talented
and they’ve been playing well. I think part of the reason they play
well is because they know they’ve got some good players playing
behind them that have more of an edge in terms of experience, but
they’re making these freshman play at a top-notch level."
In addition to the freshmen, Vallone will lend invaluable
experience to the squad and will still be utilized in the
designated hitter role. Also returning for the Bruins is catcher
Tim DeCinces, a sophomore, who last year was chosen as a freshman
All-American. Besides DeCinces, however, the position lacks
depth.
"We’ve got a premier catcher in Tim DeCinces, but when he goes
down, we’re hurting because we’ll have to juggle our lineup
around," Adams said.
Despite the optimism abounding around the baseball program, the
road to the post-season will be anything but easy for the Bruins.
The Southern Division of the Pac-10, commonly referred to as the
Six Pac, is notoriously tough year in and year out, with this
season being no exception.
Opponents in the division include Stanford, currently ranked
first in the nation by Baseball America, and crosstown rival USC,
currently ranked fourth by the same publication. Also in the
division is Arizona State, which led the division in overall wins
last year with a 45-18 record, but still finished second to the
Cardinal.
San Diego Sate will certainly be no pushover for the Bruins
today, either. The team is currently ranked 22 in the nation, after
winning a Western Athletic Conference title last year. According to
Adams, they are a legitimate threat to go to the college World
Series this year.
"They’ve got most of their players back from last year that won
their conference championship, and they’re picked to win it this
year," Adams said. "They have an All-American in Travis Lee, the
first baseman, they’ve got good pitching, they’ve got good speed.
It starts with San Diego State and I don’t see any down time in our
schedule."
The Aztecs are also currently 2-1. Last season, the UCLA and
SDSU split two wild games. The two teams combined for 42 runs and
60 hits. SDSU won the first game at Jackie Robinson Stadium, 12-11.
In the following game, UCLA scored seven runs in the top of the
10th inning to defeat the Aztecs 12-7, in 10 innings.
It appears that the 1995 UCLA baseball team will be a balanced
combination of speed, power, defense and pitching, possibly the
most well-rounded to date.
"I think more than any year in recent history, we’ve got a good
balance of pitching, defense and offense which consists of both
power and speed," Adams said. "It may be a little less power than
we’ve had before, but they’re good hitters. They’re doubles
hitters- we hit 13 doubles in Hawaii and Hawaii hit three, that’s
quite a devastating stat right there."