When the UCLA baseball team swings into action at home Friday at
3 p.m. against Cal State Northridge, the thrill of a new season
will be accompanied by a sense of relief.
“We’re extremely excited because we’re sick of
playing each other,” pitching coach Gary Adcock said.
“We’ve been inter-squading for four months now and
we’re very ready to start the year.”
The eagerness to begin has also been amplified by the large
portion of the team members still awaiting their first collegiate
action. Head coach Gary Adams secured Baseball America’s
fifth-ranked recruiting class and many of the players are expected
to have impact roles this year.
But for the most part the new freshman experience this weekend
will be nothing more than a glorified view of the game, as Adams
plans to bring the players along slowly through the beginning of
the year.
“We will try to do everything we can to win these
games,” Adams said. “We are not there to build for the
future, nor are we going to substitute just for the sake of
substituting. Our freshmen are highly prized, but no different from
everyone else, so they will have to earn their playing
time.”
Taking the ball for the Bruins Friday will be first-team
preseason All-American sophomore Wes Whisler. He will be followed
Saturday by senior Mike Kunes and Sunday at Northridge by junior
Casey Janssen. All three earned their opening weekend starts based
on last year’s performances. Whisler and Janssen tied for the
2002 team lead in ERA at 4.06 and Kunes led the Bruins with seven
wins.
However, this being the beginning of the season, the box scores
will likely be loaded after nine innings.
“The starters are definitely on a pitch count, and I
don’t see any of them going for a complete game,”
Adcock said. “But at 17 guys strong, this is the deepest
pitching staff I’ve been associated with here.”
Replacing the quasi-competitiveness of inter-squad games, the
Matadors boast wins in two of their three games last year against
UCLA and finished 2002 ranked No. 18 in the country. This year,
they enter the season without seven starting position players and
four starting pitchers from last year’s squad.
“I am not going to be concerned with Northridge,”
Adcock said. “My focus is going to be on us, what we’re
doing, and how we’re doing it.”