Rain break nurses baseball back to health
Bruins to face USC, Arizona at height of Six-Pac season battle
By Brian Purcell
Daily Bruin Contributor
The rain that descended on Southern California this week has made the UCLA baseball team's break longer than expected, giving them a two-week lull and providing needed rest for an ailing lineup.
Games with Gonzaga and Cal State Fullerton were both cancelled this week due to the weather, and because of finals, UCLA will not play again until the weekend of March 23-25 against No. 3 USC. Apparently, this break could not have come at a better time for UCLA.
"We're not a healthy team right now," said UCLA head coach Gary Adams. "We don't have a lot of major injuries, but we have a lot of guys with small, nagging things that are bothering them. It's good that we've got some time to rest."
Pitcher-first baseman Pete Zamora, right fielder Eric Byrnes, and center fielder Eric Valent are plagued by leg injuries keeping them at less than full speed. In addition, left-handed starter Ryan Lynch is not fully recovered from an arm injury that has had him out for almost a month.
The No. 10 Bruins (6-3 in Six-Pac, 15-9 overall) will need to have all of these players healthy as they enter a crucial stretch of the Six-Pac season. After the USC series, UCLA will travel to Arizona State the following weekend to take on the No. 8 Sun Devils (3-3, 16-7). USC, UCLA and Arizona State appear to be the cream of the conference, so these games will be a good indicator of which team will rise to the top.
"This could be a turning point in our season," Adams said. "It's time for us to prove whether we are for real, and for them to prove whether they are for real. They look like the two teams to beat for us."
Saturday's and Monday's games against USC will be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium, while USC's Dedeaux Field will host the series on Sunday.
Game time is at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday with Monday's game starting at 7:00 p.m.
If UCLA is to handle USC, they will have to do something that no other team has done: Shut down the Trojan offense.
USC (5-1, 16-4) has routinely pounded teams into submission this year with a high-octane offense that has produced a .360 batting average and an average of 10.5 runs per game.
Jim Parque (4-0), Pete Zamora (4-0) and Dan Keller (2-1) will be the starting pitchers expected to cool down Trojan bats, though the actual rotation has yet to be determined.
USC and Arizona State will play each other this weekend in a three-game set at USC, giving the UCLA coaching staff an opportunity to scout the teams.
"I expect to make it to a couple of games this weekend," Adams said. "Maybe watching them play will give us a chance to spot some weaknesses. I don't know. These are two great teams."
One thing that the Bruins know they will have to do better is hit the ball. They have lost three of their last four games, mostly due to their ineptness at the plate. Adams sees no better time for some of his big hitters to break out.
"We haven't been hitting like we can hit," Adams said. "Hopefully we can use our time off to remedy our physical ailments as well as some of the ills in our bats. When something needs repair, you repair it. We need to get our bats going by the USC series."Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu