Pac-10 title at stake vs. Stanford

By Adam Karon

Daily Bruin Contributor

For UCLA, the Pac-10 season will be shortened to a three-game
series when the Bruins take on the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal at
Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto this weekend.  UCLA is one game
ahead of Stanford and Arizona State in the race for the conference
title. UCLA controls its own destiny and has a chance to win its
first Pac-10 title since 1986.

Needless to say, the series is a huge one and the Bruins know
it.

“We know that if we sweep, we win it all,” UCLA
junior outfielder Matt Pearl said. “Everyone’s pretty
excited because we haven’t won too many Pac-10
titles.”

This could be the year for the Bruins as they are riding a
six-game winning streak, having swept Arizona this past weekend for
their third conference sweep.

The Cardinal is not the same team as the Wildcats, however.
Stanford enters the series having won 19 out of its last 22
games.

Stanford’s strength is its pitching staff. The
Cardinal leads the Pac-10 with a combined 3.41 ERA and have held
opponents to a microscopic .217 batting average. Starter
Justin Wayne, who recently won his career high 11th game of the
year, is likely to face the Bruins on Friday.

But the Bruin batters are confident as well. They should be, as
they lead the league in homers with 104 ““ 28 more than the
next closest team. UCLA’s power attack is led by juniors Bill
Scott, Forrest Johnson, Chase Utley and Garrett Atkins.

Scott is in the midst of his second 20-homer season and needs
just seven hits to break Troy Glaus’ all-time school record
of 108.

Johnson has been a brick wall behind the plate and a wrecking
ball with the bat, smashing 21 home runs to go along with 70
RBIs. Atkins recently won game three of the Arizona series by
hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to hand the
Wildcats a painful walk-off defeat.

But it is Utley who has been most consistent for the Bruins this
year. The junior second baseman is hitting at a .390 clip with
18 home runs and 62 RBIs. In addition to that, he has helped
anchor a Bruin defense that had fielding problems early in the
year. Most importantly, Utley provides stability, batting second to
help set the table for the middle of the lineup. He also knows
that this weekend will be a battle, with the winner taking all the
spoils.

“Stanford is a very good team,” Utley
said. “They have two strong pitchers, and we need to win
at least two games.”

But UCLA also has two strong pitchers. Josh Karp and Rob
Henkel have been tough all year, especially in recent
games. Karp currently holds a seven-game winning streak and is
fourth in the Pac-10 with nine wins. The sophomore is undefeated
vs. Pac-10 opponents (6-0) and hopes to continue his recent
success.

Henkel has kept up with Karp and provided heroic moments of his
own on the mound. The junior lefty is coming off his
unprecedented third National Player of the Week award after
throwing seven innings of one-hit ball against the
Wildcats. Henkel hopes to improve on his 6-2 record when he
faces the Cardinal on Saturday ““ a game that could mean the
title for the Bruins.

“It’s kind of exciting,” UCLA head coach Gary
Adams said. “This is what it’s all about. You
play a long season, and it comes down to the last weekend of the
conference.”

It was important that the Bruins swept Arizona this past
weekend. Because of that sweep, UCLA can win the title by winning
two, and more likely three games this weekend.

“We are the only team that controls its own
destiny,” Adam said. “We keep winning and we are the
champions. We have quite a challenge ahead to win three at
Stanford. It’ll be a packed house all weekend
long.”

And a long weekend it could be as Stanford swept UCLA the last
time they met at Sunken Diamond. It won’t be easy, but the
Bruins must win the shortened season to clinch the Pac-10.

“We all know what we need to do,” Utley
said. “This is what we’ve been playing for all
year.”