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Friday, May 31, 1996

Recruits should help baseball back to post-season in '97By Yoni Tamler

Daily Bruin Staff

With the close of each collegiate season comes the annual melange of questions cluttering the minds of the media and fans: Are any key players leaving? If so, will anyone be able to step into their shoes? Are there any new faces to watch for?

For the UCLA baseball team, the answers are "yes," "maybe," and "of course," respectively.

Most importantly, the Bruins will be spared the awful "rebuilding process" that followed the conclusion of the 1994 season, when the team was ravaged by 25 total departures in two years.

The conclusion of this season sees seniors Zak Ammirato and Rick Heineman graduate, while junior catcher Tim DeCinces may leave school early in pursuit of becoming the second generation of his family to play in the major leagues.

While Ammirato and Heineman were integral parts of the team this season, head coach Gary Adams should have no trouble replacing them in the coming season. The dilemma will be finding a catcher to succeed DeCinces, a two-time All-Pacific 10 Conference selection and arguably the team's most valuable player this season.

Redshirt freshman Jason Green and junior transfer Royce Valent split time backing up DeCinces this season, but between the two of them they have just three NCAA starts. Besides his mastery behind the plate, DeCinces was a huge contributor to UCLA's offense. This season he went deep for a Pac-10 best 18 home runs, while batting .341 with 67 RBIs, nine of those in postseason.

Another possibility at catcher is incoming freshman Brandon Rogers, one of three players already committed to UCLA next year. Rogers comes out of Grossmont High, the same school juniors Jon Heinrichs and Benny Craig attended. Joining him will be Mike Hymes, an outfielder from Torrey Pines High School (Ryan Lynch's alma mater) and Al Thielemann out of Orange County (Vista High).

Thielemann, a left-handed pitcher who throws in the low 90s and also plays first base, is expected to play as a true freshman. Both he and Rogers were invited to the U.S. Junior Olympic Team try-outs this spring.

Circulating through Westwood is the feeling that this year's regional finalists were one year away from greatness. In 1997 the Bruins return seven of nine starters and their entire starting rotation. That gives the Bruins all but one upper-classman in the every-day lineup, that player being freshman center fielder Eric Valent.

***

Little Jack Santora, the unassuming 5-foot-7-inch shortstop who clutched up mid-season when the UCLA infield's health was in shambles, sat helplessly in the dugout throughout most of the Central I Regional in Austin last week.

"I've never been so nervous for a teammate as I was then, every at-bat, especially when we were losing," Santora said after returning from Texas. "You realize that every game could be your last."

Santora started 40 games for the Bruins this season, batting .270 with a school-record 15 sacrifice hits. But over five playoffs games, Santora was hitless in just three at-bats.

"I was disappointed that I couldn't contribute as much as I wanted," Santora said. "But there were 20 other guys that wished the same thing."

A redshirt sophomore next season, Santora looks forward to being a regular cog in the UCLA machine. He also agreed that the Bruins will benefit greatly from having played under post-season pressure.

"(The players) felt they had a taste of what it's like, and now everybody has an experience of being in a big game like that," Santora said. "I'm expecting to come out and do what I do -- but anything can happen."

***

As expected, Eric Valent earned first-team Freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball. Valent tied a school record for homers as a freshman with 12, batted .289, and knocked in 55 RBIs. His defensive excellence in center field accounted for a .975 fielding percentage, second-best among every-day players on the team.

***

UCLA pitcher Jim Parque began the year by winning his first eight decisions, and finished the regular season by losing his last three.

But that didn't stop Parque from limiting Texas to two runs over nine innings in UCLA's first-round victory in the playoffs. The sophomore all-leaguer finished the tournament at 1-0 with 14 whiffs in 12 and 2/3 innings, meriting an All-Regional selection.

With Parque's additional innings coming in UCLA's 8-4 loss to Miami in the regional final, one can't help but wonder why the Bruin ace did not start the game in the first place.

"If you start you have to pace yourself, and my arm wasn't feeling up to that," Parque said. "I could come in and throw for three or four innings like I did, and technically I could have started, but I didn't think it would be good for my arm."

Parque is now packing his bags for Millington, Tenn., where Team USA is holding its preliminary try-outs. UCLA's Troy Glaus will also be competing for a spot on the team.