Bruins travel to paradise for opener

Friday, January 22, 1999

Bruins travel to paradise for opener

BASEBALL: UCLA to take on Hawaii, Hawaii-Hilo in five preseason
games

By Dylan Hernandez

Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA baseball team boarded a flight Wednesday that took it
halfway across the Pacific to make its first stop along a road that
it hopes will end in the program’s second trip in three years to
the College World Series.

Sophomore Ryan Carter will take the mound today in the Bruins
first official game of the season at Hawaii. Carter, a towering
6-foot-7 southpaw, had a 3-1 record as a first-year hurler.

Carter will lead 16th-ranked UCLA in its first of three away
games against a University of Hawaii squad that has not been in
postseason action since 1993.

In Gary Adams’s reign as head coach, the Bruins are 17-7 on
opening day. In last year’s series between the two sides, Hawaii
win all three contests. Although the Rainbows would go on to finish
with an overall record of 34-22, they finished 12-18 in the Western
Athletic Conference to place a mere fourth.

Hawaii returns 11 pitchers, including junior Jamie Aloy. Aloy,
who also plays first base, became a starter late in the season and
established himself as the ace.

He went 4-0 while posting team-bests in ERA (3.34) and opponent
batting average (.269). As one of only two .300 hitters on the
roster, he will also be looked on to carry the Rainbows’
offensively challenged batting lineup.

The Bruins will counter with a slew of young but explosive
players, headlined by sophomore All-American Garrett Atkins (.383,
9 home runs, 54 RBI in ’98). Atkins is moving from third base,
where he played last year, to first.

Atkins will bat before another potential All-American, Chase
Utley. Utley is coming off of a season in which he belted 15 home
runs to break the UCLA freshman record.

Joining them will be left fielder Bill Scott, who received
Freshman All-American honors despite playing sparingly. In only 68
at-bats, he tagged opposing pitchers for four homers and drove in
11 runs.

The two projected senior starters on the team, catcher Jason
Green and shortstop Jack Santora, will share the title of team
captain. Both had productive summers.

Green was the MVP of the San Diego Stars’ Fourth of July
Tournament and competed in the NBC World Series, where he hit .467.
Santora made the Cape Cod League All-Star Game after finishing 10th
in the league’s race for the batting title.

Expected to follow Carter in the pitching rotation are sophomore
Chad Cislak (4-8, 8.50 ERA) and freshman Josh Karp, whose debut has
been much anticipated. Karp, who possesses a 90 mph fastball, was
offered a two million dollar contract out of high school by the
Atlanta Braves. He was chosen as Baseball America’s top pro
prospect in the publication’s pre- and midseason issues.

Following their series in Honolulu, the Bruins will head to the
Big Island to face Hawaii-Hilo.

The Vulcans have lost seven seniors from a team that finished a
lackluster 16-34 in 1998 and had a cumulative batting average of
only .272.

Hilo coach Joey Estrella is 0-4 lifetime against UCLA. With the
help of senior infielder Paul Yap (.318), he hopes that his players
will fare better than they did last year, when the Bruins handed
them a 9-0 loss.

Thursday, Honolulu registered a high of 82 degrees. If the
weather holds up, the start of UCLA’s journey to Omaha will be a
bright one.

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