Arizona brings fiery pitching to contest with UCLA
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 11, 2000 9:00 p.m.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
When the UCLA baseball team begins its three-game homestand
against Arizona Saturday, it will be exposed to something it has
not seen all year: a 98 mile-per-hour fastball.
In the beginning of their second-to-last conference series, the
Bruins (31-22, 13-5 Pac-10) will face the country’s hardest
thrower ““ Wildcat sophomore Ben Diggins. Diggins, the
top-rated professional prospect in all of collegiate baseball,
enters the weekend having struck out 110 batters in 101 and a third
innings pitched. He has a 9-3 record and an ERA of 3.55.
“We haven’t faced anyone that throws that hard all
year,” UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. “And we
don’t have anyone that throws that hard to test us out,
either.”
Although Arizona (25-25, 7-11) is out of the running for an NCAA
berth, leaving Diggins nothing to play for other than to strengthen
his bid for individual postseason honors, UCLA is in a battle with
Stanford for the Pac-10 title. Sweeping Arizona will ensure the
Bruins at least a share of the conference championship so long as
they do not drop all three games against Stanford the week
after.
To sweep the Wildcats, UCLA will have to knock out the 6-foot-6
Diggins. Yet, the Bruins are confident.
“We’re going to score runs,” UCLA leftfielder
Bill Scott said. “He’s not going to throw a complete
game on us. He gets wild sometimes, and I think we can take
advantage of that.”
Arizona’s hitters, in the meantime, will be just as prone
to the jelly leg, as the Bruins counter with their own sophomore
flamethrower Josh Karp. Karp, who missed a few early season starts
due to the flu, has come on strong over the second half of the
year.
Karp, 8-1 with a 4.19 ERA, has been clocked as high as 96 mph.
While Karp cannot be chosen in this spring’s draft (Diggins
turns 21 in June, making him eligible despite being a sophomore),
he is the expected to be the first pitcher selected in 2001.
On Sunday, UCLA will throw lefthander Rob Henkel. Henkel,
himself a top-flight prospect, promised he would throw his best
game of the year this weekend.
“I’m going to be ballin,'” he said.
“I swear, I’ll be pumped.”
Henkel’s Arizona counterpart, Rob Shabansky (3-4, 7.94)
looks on paper to be a likely victim of the UCLA offense.
UCLA, hitting .332 as a team, has a number of big bats in its
lineup. Scott is leading the squad in batting (.433), home runs
(21) and RBIs (69). Surrounding him are second baseman Chase Utley
(.392-18-60), catcher Forrest Johnson (.362-19-63) and first
baseman Garrett Atkins (.362-15-57).
Taking the mound in the last contest of the series for the
Wildcats will be senior Tony Milo (5-6, 5.59). Junior Bobby Roe
(6-4, 5.15) will pitch for UCLA.
The Bruins, however, do not have Shabansky or Milo on their
minds. Their focus remains on Diggins.
“We have a lot of good hitters on this team,” Scott
said. “We should be ready for him.”
“We’re going to come out and play hard,” Utley
added. “We’re going to have to win these games if we
want to win the Pac-10.”
Saturday and Sunday’s games are scheduled to start at 1
p.m. Monday’s contest will begin at 6 p.m. All the games will
be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
