Baseball hosts red-hot Trojans in series
By Ross Bersot
This freeway series doesn’t include the Dodgers. Or the Angels.
In fact, it doesn’t have a thing to do with professional
baseball.
But this weekend’s Six-Pac home-and-away series between UCLA
(23-17 overall, 10-11 Six-Pac) and No. 7 USC is as big-league as
any game played in Chavez Ravine or Anaheim Stadium.
Winners of 10 straight, including conference-series sweeps over
No. 20 Arizona State at home and at No. 21 Stanford, the Trojans
(31-15, 13-8) arrive in Westwood for tonight’s opener playing their
best baseball of the season.
One reason for USC’s success is the domination of opponents by
the pitching staff, which leads the league with a 3.58 ERA.
Although almost everyone the Trojans have put on the mound has been
successful, sophomore Randy Flores stands out from the rest.
Flores is coming off an almost magical freshman campaign, during
which the unheralded walk-on compiled an 11-1 record and a 1.66 ERA
en route to earning All Pacific-10 Conference first team and
Freshman All-American first team honors.
After an inauspicious beginning to his sophomore season, the
southpaw has regained form, and once again leads the conference
with a 2.64 ERA and an 8-2 record.
"I think last summer I really tried a lot harder to get a little
too much better than I can," Flores said. "Knowing that I had a
good season last year, I went into this fall trying to be a lot
better than I was, just to prove that (last season) wasn’t a fluke.
So I wound up pressuring.
"Once I wound up relaxing, after the first few games of the
year, things just started to fall back into place like they did
last year."
Two-time Six-Pac Pitcher of the Week, Flores will start
tonight’s 7 p.m. contest at Jackie Robinson Stadium against UCLA’s
Jim Parque (3-5, 3.67 ERA). Switching venues on Saturday, USC’s Ben
Tucker (3-2, 3.84) will take the mound for the 1 p.m. start at
Dedeaux Field, opposing Rick Heineman (5-4, 3.99). The Bruins are
undecided who will face Brian Cooper (4-2, 4.36) when the teams
traverse I-10 to finish the series in Westwood at 1 p.m. on
Sunday.
Don’t count on the Bruins to just roll over for their archrival.
UCLA has strung together four wins of its own, including a
season-first Six-Pac series sweep of Arizona last weekend.
Despite his team’s recent success, UCLA head coach Gary Adams
knows his team must play nearly flawless baseball for a chance to
take the series with the Trojans.
"We’re going to have to play a little better than we did (last)
weekend to beat ‘SC," Adams said. "Because ‘SC is a better team.
Period."