OH!-MAHA

Tuesday, 5/27/97 OH!-MAHA BASEBALL: Bruins dominate to win
Midwest Regional title, go on to College World Series

By Kristina Wilcox Daily Bruin Senior Staff STILLWATER, Okla. —
Simply the best / better than all the rest / better than anyone …
This Tina Turner song, which was played during half-inning warmups
of the first game UCLA played in the Midwest regional tournament on
Sunday, exemplified the Bruin baseball team. The Bruins easily
handled Oklahoma State, scoring 36 runs over two games against the
Cowboys on Sunday to win the Regional crown and advance to the
College World Series for only the second time in UCLA’s storied
athletic history. By winning the afternoon game 14-2, the
top-seeded Bruins (45-19-1) set a new UCLA record for wins in a
season and, more importantly, forced a nightcap matchup to
double-eliminate the hosting Cowboys (46-19) from the tournament.
OSU needed to win only one of the Sunday games to advance to Omaha
and to the College World Series for the 19th time in its history.
But the Cowboys were unable to use the home turf to their
advantage. In the final game of the tournament, UCLA outscored the
Cowboys 22-2, giving the OSU squad its worst loss of the season and
its first consecutive losses at home since 1992. On the way towards
scoring those 22 runs, the Bruins came across with 31 hits. The 22
runs were not a record – UCLA beat Hawaii in their first game of
the season this year, 23-11. Bruins head coach Gary Adams was
jovial at the celebratory press conference. "When you get 51 hits
in a day," Adams said, "that’ll win you quite a few ball games."
And Adams was also quite sentimental about his first trip to the
College World Series with the Bruins. "I’m very thankful to go to
Omaha," Adams said. "Nobody in this world appreciates it more than
me. I’m very lucky to have a team like I have." In a tribute to
UCLA’s dominating play, five Bruins were named to the Midwest
Regional All-Tournament team: second baseman Nick Theodorou, center
fielder Eric Valent (the Regional’s Most Outstanding Player), first
baseman/starting pitcher/designated hitter Peter Zamora, starting
pitcher Jim Parque and shortstop Troy Glaus. Theodorou quietly led
the UCLA offense in the tournament. He went 5 for 6 in the night
game and 9 for 10 on the day. Overall, he socked a .667 batting
average (16 for 24) in the six games of the regional competition, a
high among all the players who competed in the bracket. Adams was
very pleased with his second baseman’s play this weekend, and even
a bit surprised when told about Theodorou’s exploits with the bat.
"He’s been great," Adams said. "I think you use the term ‘quietly’
correctly. I didn’t know that he was leading, but I knew he was on
base a lot this weekend." The team had a .407 average after the
31-hit barrage. Yes, the team. While Theodorou was busy getting on
base over the weekend, Valent was driving in runs. Valent, the
regional MVP, dramatically overshadowed the power numbers of the
competition by hitting six home runs in the five Bruin victories
and driving in 15 of his teammates. And Peter Zamora, the
jack-of-all-trades on the team, was second in the tourney to Valent
in both of those offensive categories with two home runs and 10
RBI. He also kept the Bruins rolling when he went 8 2/3 innings on
the mound in Saturday’s 5-3 win over second-seeded Tennessee
(42-19). The other two members of the all-tourney team are the
squad’s Olympians. Parque had 11 innings of work in the series. He
started the Friday morning game against Ohio, which the Bruins won
easily, 15-1. Adams anticipated playing on Sunday, and thus he
pulled Parque after three innings of one-hit ball to save his
Olympian ace for championship day rather than waste his sparkling
effort in a blowout game and lose him for the rest of the weekend.
But, as it turned out, Parque had 14 runs to work with in his
second outing on Sunday afternoon, facing Oklahoma State. By the
eighth inning of the 14-2 game, the Bruins had knocked the Cowboy
pitchers around for 20 hits. The biggest ones were two-run home
runs by Zamora and Valent. In pitching part of the game, Parque
proved why he had made the Atlanta team as the only left-hander on
the pitching staff. As the Bruin offense dominated OSU pitching,
Parque dominated the Cowboy hitters. He scattered four hits across
eight innings, allowing a lone run in the first inning on a
sun-aided triple and groundout. Glaus, for once, was a surprise
pick for the all-tourney team, since he was not very sharp out in
the field – he made a tourney-high five errors – and he was not
hitting the long ball as frequently as he has throughout the
season. As the UCLA team leader in home runs (31) at the start of
regional play, fans were looking for the long ball whenever Glaus
strode to the plate. But the Harvard, No. 5 Ohio (43-18), Tennessee
and Oklahoma State pitchers opted to pitch around the power hitter
and face Valent. And their fear of Glaus helped lead to Valent’s
spectacular offensive numbers. Glaus walked eight times in six
games. He did come through with a homer against Ohio, moving him
into a tie with former USC standout Mark McGwire for the all-time
Pac-10 single-season record for home runs. But while the rest of
his teammates were swinging hot bats in the Sunday night massacre
of Cowboy pitchers, Glaus carried a cold one to the plate. He
struck out swinging four times, and twice in the sixth inning, when
the Bruins scored 10 times. That sixth inning was UCLA’s
second-biggest of the year, and it came in large part thanks to
left fielder Jon Heinrichs. After losing his 20-game hitting streak
in the 7-2 loss to Harvard Thursday morning, Heinrichs found
himself mired in a 3-for-20 slump. But he put it all together in
that sixth inning. Heinrichs followed a single by catcher Casey
Cloud (who had gotten his first two hits of the tourney in the 14-2
victory) with a long fly ball down the left-field line. It careened
off the foul pole (or so the umpires ruled), making a loud clank.
The third-base umpire Al Davis took awhile to make the official
call on whether the ball had caromed off the foul pole or off the
top of the fence. Meanwhile, UCLA third-base coach Vince Beringhele
signaled a home run on his own and told Heinrichs to go home, even
though the ball was still on the playing field. After some arguing
by Cowboy head coach Tom Holliday, it was officially ruled a home
run, and UCLA had notched two runs to take a 13-2 lead. Much later
in the inning, with Cloud, designated hitter Chad Matoian and third
baseman Jack Santora on base with singles, Heinrichs came up to bat
again, with one out. This time, Heinrichs hit a pitch that was
undoubtedly a home run or, more specifically, a grand slam, giving
him six RBI for the inning, twice as many as he had driven in
during the previous five games. Still, the six RBI only barely beat
a previous Heinrichs record for RBI in an inning. In UCLA’s only
bigger inning this year, a wild 13-run affair against the Sun
Devils in February, Heinrichs had five RBI. The Bruins this weekend
proved they were simply the best in the Midwest Regional by being
dominant at the plate and on the mound. But starting Friday in
Omaha, the Bruins will face seven other teams that were simply the
best of their own regionals. UCLA 22, Oklahoma State 2 CHARLES
KUO/Daily Bruin Members of the UCLA baseball team celebrate after
their decisive victory over Oklahoma State, sending the Bruins to
their first trip to the College World Series since 1969. Bruins to
open against Miami UCLA, seeded fourth, will open the CWS against
Miami on Saturday at noon PST. The game will be televised by
CBS.