UCLA dominates Arizona from mound

By Dylan Hernandez

Daily Bruin Contributor

Carried by the arms of pitchers Josh Karp and Rob Henkel, the
UCLA baseball team edged closer to Pac-10 title this weekend by
defeating Arizona (25-27, 7-13 Pac-10) in the first two contests of
a three-game homestand, which concludes today.

Winning by scores of 5-3 and 10-0, the Bruins (33-22 overall)
improved their conference record to 15-5, moving past Stanford
(15-6) into first place.

“It feels good to put the team in a good position to sweep
and outright win the Pac-10,” said Henkel, the winner of the
second game. “I was really up for today’s
game”

Karp, the starting pitcher in Saturday’s opener, however,
didn’t wake up on the day of his outing feeling too great. In
fact, having overslept, he almost didn’t get up at all.

He arrived at the stadium late, then put on the wrong pants
before going into the bullpen to get loose. Midway through the
warm-up session, Karp realized his pants didn’t match. He had
to go back in the locker room to change.

But when the game began, any lack of concentration Karp may have
had disappeared. He outshone his Arizona counterpart, All-American
Ben Diggins, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning.

Diggins, a 6-foot-6 righthander with a 98 mile-per-hour
fastball, struck out the side in the first inning and gave up a
solo home run to Bruin designated hitter Jim Hemming in the second.
UCLA got to Diggins again in the fifth when first baseman Garrett
Atkins singled in second baseman Chase Utley.

Karp’s perfect game was broken up in the sixth frame on a
Kenny Huff bloop single to center. Yet, Karp did not get himself
into trouble until the eighth. By that time, Diggins was already
out of the game and UCLA was ahead 5-0.

After Karp walked a batter and hit another, second baseman
Trevor Mote drove a run in with a squirt single into left field off
the end of his bat.

Karp walked the following batter on four pitches to load the
bases. Despite his protests to pitching coach Tim Leary, he was
taken out. Reliever Ryan Carter gave up two more runs before the
end of the inning, but the contest would get no closer.

“My hat goes off to Josh,” Arizona All-American
shortstop Keoni DeRenne said. “Every pitch, you didn’t
know what was going to come.”

“I took it one pitch at a time,” Karp said. “I
didn’t worry about anything else ““ where we were in the
standings or who was pitching against us.”

On Sunday, UCLA got another stellar performance on the mound, as
Henkel blanked the Wildcats in seven innings of work. Striking out
13, Henkel gave up just one hit.

For Arizona, the quality of its pitching took a significant
tumble. Starter Rob Shabansky, charged with seven earned runs, was
blasted off the field without ever getting an out in the second
inning. Relievers Rob Elias and David Capek fared a little better,
yielding a combined three runs over the remainder of the contest,
but the Wildcat hitters could not get the team back into the
game.

“We were bad in every phase of the game,” Arizona
head coach Jerry Stitt said. “UCLA had good offspeed stuff
today and we didn’t make any adjustments.”

“Not having to face Diggins today, mentally, we were
looser out there,” UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. “We
hit the ball pretty well and pitched great again. It’s
another game where we put it all together.”

Today’s finale, which will be held at Jackie Robinson
Stadium, is set to begin at 6 p.m. Lefthander Bobby Roe will get
the start for UCLA while fellow southpaw Tony Milo gets the nod for
the Wildcats.