Thursday, April 9, 1998
Winning streak boosts confidence
BASEBALL: Sweep against Arizona this weekend could earn playoff
berth
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
Thanks to newfound confidence related to a current four-game
winning streak, the UCLA baseball team looks to start something big
against conference rival Arizona.
On Tuesday night the Bruins (15-22 overall, 8-13 in the Six-Pac)
defeated the University of San Diego (20-21) by a score of 8-2. The
two-hour, 54-minute game followed up their home sweep of Cal this
past weekend.
Lefty sophomore Al Thielman threw 2 1/3 perfect innings for a
Bruin pitching staff that allowed only five hits in the game while
striking out nine.
The Bruins played their second consecutive game with flawless
defense, and freshman third baseman Garrett Atkins extended his
hitting streak to 24 games with a single.
Second baseman Nick Theodorou, apparently 100-percent healthy
from his leg injury, went 3 for 3 with a walk to raise his batting
average to .419. Theodorou, who also has a .571 on-base percentage,
scored three of the Bruins’ eight runs. UCLA, who is a long-shot to
make the playoffs, can strengthen their playoff positioning with a
three-game sweep of Arizona (26-16, 7-11) this weekend.
Although the overall records between the two teams are far
apart, the Wildcats are struggling and were just swept by perennial
rival Arizona State and are a meager 1 1/2 games ahead of the
Bruins in conference standings.
If the Bruins could move up to fourth in a conference as
competitive as the Six-Pac, an at-large bid would at least be a
possibility.
Starting for UCLA today will be Paul Diaz (1-1, 5.33 ERA). Diaz,
who joined the starting rotation because of elbow injuries to
senior John Phillips and sophomore Rob Henkel, was able to keep
top-ranked Stanford under control for six innings two weeks ago,
and a repeat performance could mean victory for the Bruins.
On Friday UCLA will send to the mound freshman left-hander Ryan
Carter (1-1, 6.26). The Bruin starter for Saturday’s 1 p.m. contest
is to be announced at a later time.
The starters for Arizona will be James Johnson (4-3, 4.88)
today, Tyler Haddix (0-0, 5.48) on Friday and Tony Millo (7-2,
5.43) in Saturday’s series finale.JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily
Bruin
Senior Eric Byrnes slides into first base during a game played
against Cal State Dominguez Hills.