Monday, May 11, 1998
The big hitter
BASEBALL: Concentrating on hits, not homers, vaults freshman
phenom Garrett Atkins to top
By Kristina Wilcox
Daily Bruin Staff
Consistency is the key to success in baseball. Steady hitting
and reliable pitching and fielding gets teams into the
postseason.
While the UCLA baseball squad had an up-and-down year,
consistency was Garrett Atkins’ forte. The freshman third baseman
led the Bruins in batting average (.384 before the weekend). Atkins
also had a school-record 33-game hitting streak.
"Every at-bat, I try to hit the ball," Atkins said. "I don’t
like to strike out. I put the ball in play a lot, so I’ll take the
hits as they come."
Atkins considers himself lucky to have kept a streak going for
so long in his first season at UCLA. But his coaches saw him as a
great hitter from the start.
"I was the first one (of the coaches) to see him play," hitting
coach Vince Beringhele. "Then coach (Gary) Adams went to a game and
he told me afterwards that Atkins is definitely going to hit at
UCLA."
Atkins was a star athlete for University High in Irvine. He
lettered in baseball for three years as an outfielder, third
baseman and pitcher. He earned all-league honors during those three
seasons, two of which culminated in a state championship. He was
twice named league MVP, and, in 1997, Atkins was the high school’s
Athlete of the Year.
As for his numbers, Atkins set a few school records. In his
junior year, he set a single-season record for doubles (19) and
hits (51). The following year he would bat .557 with a school
record for home runs (13) and runs scored (49).
Those big numbers and honors attracted the attention of big
baseball schools, including USC and Oklahoma State. Major-league
teams were also interested in him. The New York Mets drafted Atkins
in the 10th round of the 1997 draft.
It was during a recruiting trip to San Diego, after the draft,
that Atkins met Bobby Valentine, manager of the Mets.
"I got to go in the clubhouse and meet a lot of players," Atkins
said of the trip. "It was fun."
"The Mets made a pretty good run at him. They wanted him,"
Beringhele said.
The star treatment was not enough to get Atkins to sign with the
Mets. He opted instead for an education.
"My parents were big supporters of me going to college," Atkins
said. "It was the right thing for me to do. But it was the toughest
decision I had to make."
Deciding where to go was also an issue.
"We didn’t have a lot of (financial) aid at the time,"
Beringhele recalled.
UCLA was in the process of recruiting the top freshman class in
the nation, so that is no surprise.
In the end, Atkins wound up in a Bruin uniform for the 1998
season, and he made immediate contributions to the offense.
Besides leading the squad in batting average going into the
weekend, Atkins was also tops in hits (81), doubles (22), and he
had the fewest strikeouts among the regulars (18). Only the senior
Erics – Byrnes and Valent – started more games than Atkins.
With his first season over, Atkins’ future is bright, as long as
he stays consistent.
"We should look really good in a couple of years," Atkins said
of the team.
SUSIE MING HWA CHU
Freshman third baseman Garrett Atkins was a source of
consistency – a .384
average and school-record 33 game hitting streak – in a very
up-and-down season.