Squad captures share of Pac-10 title

By Adam Karon

Daily Bruin Contributor

PALO ALTO, Calif ““ Disappointment is part of baseball, but
few teams would be disappointed after escaping from
Stanford’s Sunken Diamond with a share of the Pac-10
title.

But those were exactly UCLA’s sentiments following two
blowout losses on Saturday and Sunday, which nonetheless made the
Bruins co-Pac-10 champions with Arizona State and Stanford.

UCLA clinched a share of the title after coming back to win
Friday night’s game, 10-9.

That game was a seesaw battle between the unranked Bruins and
second-ranked Cardinal. The UCLA offense provided the spark, as
Randell Shelley had a pair of homeruns and Charles Merricks, Chase
Utley and Jim Hemming also went deep.

But it was the Cardinal who pounced on UCLA starter Josh Karp
first, jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead. The Bruins stayed close,
however, and pulled to 9-7 in the seventh inning as Karp settled
down and junior Scott Arrasmith provided support with an inning of
shutout relief.

With two outs in the seventh, Bill Scott walked and designated
hitter Hemming blasted a home run over the right field wall to tie
the game.

That was all the Bruins needed, and they then turned to Palo
Alto native Jon Brandt, who stymied the Cardinal for two innings
while the Bruins took the lead in the top of the ninth on a wild
pitch.

Brandt struck out Edmund Muth to lead off the bottom of the
ninth. Joe Borchard and John Gall then grounded out to give the
Bruins the win and at least a share of the Pac-10 title.

“It’s good to get the first one,” UCLA head
coach Gary Adams said after Friday’s game. “But we
didn’t come here to play one, we came to play
three.”

The win, coupled with an Arizona State loss, meant the Bruins
only had to win one out of their two remaining games to win the
conference title outright.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, they seemed to forget that
Saturday’s game was part of the three-game series ““
nothing went right for them that day. Starting pitcher Rob Henkel
was roughed up for seven runs in the first inning. But the Cardinal
didn’t stop there. Stanford doubled its score in the second
and added two more in the third to jump out to a 16-1 lead.

“Our goal after Friday was to win two out of three in this
series,” UCLA pitcher Ryan Carter said Saturday. “Now
our whole mentality changes.”

Things got so bad Saturday for UCLA that Adams turned to backup
shortstop Aldo Pinto in an attempt to save the bullpen’s arms
for Sunday’s game. Pinto did his job, holding Stanford to
just one run in two innings as the Cardinal won it going away,
19-3.

Sunday’s game started off just like Saturday’s.
Stanford jumped out to an early 7-0 lead against UCLA starter Bobby
Roe. Roe didn’t make it out of the second inning, giving way
to Kevin Jerkins and then Carter.

The Cardinal again showed its power Saturday, notably in the
sixth inning when Joe Borchard, who had homered on Saturday, took
reliever Scott Arrasmith deep over the center field wall for a
grand slam. That ball went over a 35-foot wall placed more than 400
feet from home plate.

Up to that point the Bruins had plenty of opportunities to get
back into the game, loading the bases in the fourth and fifth, but
they managed to score just one run.

“We had our chances,” shortstop Josh Canales said.
“We had a few situations with the bases loaded and we just
didn’t get it done.”

A major turning point came in the fifth, when Canales hit a
bases-loaded grounder to short. Randell Shelley slid hard into
second, breaking up the double play and causing the throw to escape
the first baseman. Two runs scored on the play, and the Bruins had
a runner on second with one out and Stanford leading 11-7.

But the second base umpire called Shelley for obstruction,
resulting in an automatic double play and no runs. The Bruins were
unable to come back and score that inning, as Matt Pearl grounded
out to the pitcher to end the threat.

The lone bright spot for the Bruins was the play of Adam Berry,
who came a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

With the pair of losses UCLA ended the regular season tied for
first with Stanford and ASU. The Sun Devils won the tiebreaker for
the Pac-10’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals, but the
three teams shared the title, the Bruins’ first since
1986.