Sliding into season play

Sliding into season play

Steady hurlers and lively bats prime Bruins for interleague
lineup

By Yoni Tamler

The grass is cut, the leather oiled, the eye black moist and the
Kodiak packed and ready. The major leagues don’t begin rehearsing
for interleague play until February, but the UCLA baseball team
already has its lineup card penciled for the 1996 season.

Coming off a season in which they failed to make the playoffs,
the Bruins return all but one of their starters and are ranked No.
10 by Baseball America. Anyway you look at it, UCLA baseball is for
real.

"Our team is looking real good," said sophomore pitcher Jim
Parque, who will anchor the pitching staff for the second straight
year. "Last year we didn’t have the pitching. This year everyone
came back throwing harder and better."

The Bruin rotation has filled in the voids left by graduates
Mike Caravelli and Jeff Howatt with incoming players Dan Keller, UC
Santa Barbara transfer Matt Klein and Arkansas transfer Kevin
Sheredy, who will act as the team’s closer.

"This should be one of the best and deepest pitching staffs we
have ever had here at UCLA," pitching coach Dave Schmidt said. "We
are looking for the pitching staff to be the strength of the
team."

But even in light of UCLA’s hurlers, everyone knows that the
best defense is a good offense, and "good" is a term that does not
do justice to the talent of the Bruins at bat.

"The offense is looking outstanding, and Eric Valent should help
out our starting lineup," Parque said.

Valent, a freshman centerfielder who was an All-American at
Canyon High School in Anaheim, is one of eight incoming players
from whom the Bruins expect a measurable contribution.

The Bruins have pop all through the lineup, from All-Pac 10
selection Eric Byrnes (.324 average, nine homeruns, 35 RBIs), to
All-American candidate Tim DeCinces (.315, 13, 51), to Team USA
member Troy Glaus (.258, 12, 39), to pitcher/first baseman Peter
Zamora (.295, 6, 48). As a team, the Bruins hit .293 in 1995.

"We have the talent to win it all," UCLA head coach Gary Adams
said. "The key is going to be how well this team can get
together."

"The team attitude is that we’re going to win league," confirmed
Parque, "and make an appearance in (sight of the college World
Series) Omaha."

Daily Bruin File Photo

Sophomore Jim Parque will anchor the pitching staff this season
for the Bruins, who are ranked pre-season No. 10 by Baseball
America.

"Last year we didn’t have the pitching. This year everyone came
back throwing harder and better."

Jim Parque

Pitcher

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