By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Staff
[email protected]
UCLA head coach Gary Adams took over the UCLA baseball program
in 1975. In his inaugural season, Adams inherited a senior second
baseman by the name of Andy Lopez who became the co-captain of the
1975 squad, and was later drafted in the ninth round by the Detroit
Tigers.
Lopez graduated from UCLA that year and went on to explore his
baseball career. Twenty-eight years later Lopez will meet Adams
again, but this time they won’t share the same dugout.
Adams and his Bruins (22-28, 6-9 Pac-10) will travel down to
Tucson, Ariz., where Lopez is in his first season as head coach of
the Arizona Wildcats (28-18, 6-9). It will be their first meeting
in a Pac-10 game.
The two have met before when Lopez coached at other schools, but
never in a series as vital as this one. Both teams share an
identical conference record and with postseason hopes on the line,
neither can afford to lose any more ground in this three
series.
“A sweep would be nice, but we can’t think about
that,” junior righthander Doug Silva said. “If we start
thinking about the next game, then we’re focusing on the task
at hand. It’s going to be tough, but we have to take it one
game at a time.”
UCLA’s chances did take a blow this week. 2002 co-captain
and offensive catalyst Ben Francisco was supposed to return from a
collar bone injury for the Arizona trip, but team trainers have not
cleared him to play. The Bruins are 6-10 since Francisco’s
injury.
The emergence of Silva as the leader of a battered Bruin bullpen
is reason for hope, especially for pitching coach Gary Adcock.
Before allowing four runs in a start last Sunday, Silva had gone
almost 10 consecutive innings without allowing a run. A season
ending injury to Sunday starter Casey Janssen has forced Silva to
be ready for a start or relief appearance in every game.
“I approach relieving in the same way that I approach
starting, so it doesn’t make a difference to me,” Silva
said. “I told Coach Adcock that I would always fight for that
starting job, but right now I want to win a lot more than I want to
start.”
The Bruins, who haven’t had luck on their side all season,
finally have a statistic that works for them. In meetings between
Adams and Lopez, the Bruin skipper holds a 10-6 advantage over his
former player. Adams will have to continue that dominance if the
Bruins hope to stay alive for postseason play.