Tuesday, April 2, 1996
Cal State Fullerton will not allow usual mid-week reprieve By
Brian Purcell
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA baseball team usually uses midweek, nonconference games
to merely tune up between its weekend Six-Pac series.
Tuesday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton, however, will
not provide much of a rest.
The No. 1 Titans were last year’s national champions, and they
haven’t exactly levelled off this year, posting a 30-2 record and
winning each of their last 16 games. Going back to last year, they
have won 48 out of 50 games.
In the previous meeting between the two teams on Feb. 14,
Fullerton beat UCLA, 14-7, in a sloppy game where neither team
played well. Today’s game is a makeup of the game that was rained
out on Mar. 14, and will be played at 5 p.m. on Fullerton’s Titan
Field.
No. 11 UCLA has been on a roll of late, taking two of three from
both Arizona State and USC to move to 10-5 in Six-Pac play, which
leaves them just one game behind the first place Trojans. They will
return to conference play this weekend when they travel to Cal, and
head coach Gary Adams hopes that the Fullerton game will not
interrupt their winning ways.
"To tell you the truth, I’d rather just prepare for Cal," Adams
said. "It (the Fullerton game) will be a good game for us to see
what we can do, but we’re in a real tough part of our schedule, and
we could use some rest."
UCLA, which Fullerton head coach Augie Garrido considers, "as
good as any team on the West Coast," will return Pete Zamora and
Troy Glaus to the lineup for Tuesday’s game. Zamora could not play
in the field against USC or Arizona State because of a bad back,
but will start at first base against the Titans, and Glaus will
come back after missing Sunday’s game against the Sun Devils
because of the beaning he suffered during Saturday’s game.
The Bruins will need to be at full strength to stop a Titan
lineup that boasts last year’s National Player of the Year, Mark
Kotsay. In 32 games this year, Kotsay has hit .406, with 12 home
runs and 51 RBIs. He has also pitched 51Ž3 innings, allowing
zero runs and posting two saves.
UCLA will throw several different pitchers at the Titan lineup,
going with those who haven’t worked much of late. Their three
regular starters, Jim Parque, Rick Heineman and Zamora will all
rest to get ready for the Cal series.
"We’re going to concentrate more on our league games," Adams
said. "The most important thing for us is to win on the weekends.
But this Fullerton game is about as close to a league game as you
can get."
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Despite his 5-foot-10-inch, 150-pound frame, sophomore Jim
Parque’s fastball has been clocked in the low 90s.