Wednesday, April 15, 1998
Baseball Notes
Atkins breaks
hitting record
Garrett Atkins dropped into the record books in UCLA’s 15-7 win
over Six-Pac foe Arizona on Friday night. With two infield singles
in the game, the freshman third baseman broke David Tokheim’s Bruin
record 25-game hitting streak, set in 1991.
"It feels good," Atkins said. "It’s a good accomplishment, and
I’m just happy it could come on a win."
The night before Atkins had tied the record with a single to the
opposite field in the eighth inning.
Atkins was also named the UCLA male athlete of the month in
March when he hit safely in all 15 of the Bruins’ games while
compiling a .400 batting average.
Amongst starters, Atkins is second only to Theodorou with a .381
batting average.
Righetti’s great, but not the best
UCLA senior Ryan Righetti’s one-hit shutout of Hawaii-Hilo on
Monday was one of the better pitching performances by a Bruin in
the history of the program – but not the best.
In 1995, John Phillips, who is still with the Bruins but
underwent what is likely career-ending elbow surgery earlier this
month, pitched a one-hit shutout on March 1 against the University
of San Diego.
Phillips’ outing was more impressive because Righetti allowed a
double while all that USD could muster from Phillips was an infield
single.
Bruins 7-1 since loss to lowly Cal
After suffering disappointing sweeps at the hands of Cal State
Northridge and Stanford, the Bruins lost a 11-4 game to Cal –
making UCLA the only team to have lost a conference game to
Cal.
The six-game winning streak prompted a quick turn around for the
Jekyll-and-Hyde Bruins, who as of Monday night had won seven of
their last eight games.
UCLA not only swept Cal at home, but the Bruins also won an
important series against Arizona 2-1 and then demolished
Hawaii-Hilo 16-0 on Monday night.
"I think this team is starting to realize how good they can be,"
said Byrnes after one of UCLA’s two victories over Arizona.
"Hopefully it’s not too late.
"We’ve proven that we can play with any team in the country.
We’ve played with Stanford, we definitely played with Arizona and
we played with ‘SC. When we play the way we’re capable of playing,
then we’re going to be right up there. It’s just a matter of being
consistent."
Arizona State demolishes USC
The Pac-10 Southern Division (otherwise known as the Six-Pac)
had both players of the week come from the same team – Arizona
State.
The Sun Devils took two out of three games from USC this
weekend, but what really impressed fans was the way in which ASU
hitters feasted on the Trojan pitchers.
On Friday ASU won 18-3 with Trojan ace Seth Etherton on the
mound.
On Saturday USC rebounded to win 7-5.
On Sunday the Sun Devils scored an insane amount of runs in
their 24-4 victory.
ASU third baseman Andrew Binbring was named player of the week
as he batted .600 (6-for-10) with three home runs, eight RBI and
seven runs.
ASU pitcher Ryan Mills struck out a career-high 15 batter in the
18-3 annihilation of USC. Mills pitched eight innings, allowing
only three hits and five walks.
Six-Pac rankings update
The Bruins have only six more conference games left the rest of
the way.
Right now UCLA is in sole possession of fourth place, but
anything can change with all six games being against top 25
opponents – Arizona State this weekend and USC the next.
Here are the standings in the Six-Pac as of Monday night:
1) Stanford – 13-4 (29-6-1)
2) Arizona State – 14-6 (27-14)
3) USC – 14-7 (29-11)
4) UCLA – 10-14 (18-23)
5) Arizona – 8-13 (27-18)
6) California – 2-17 (14-22)
Notes compiled by Vytas Mazeika, Daily Bruin Staff.