Bruins face Vulcans, Warriors in a five-game trip to Hawaii

  MIKE CHIEN Sophomore first baseman Casey
Janssen reaches for the easy put-out in UCLA’s game
against Gonzaga earlier this season.

By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Reporter

UCLA head coach Gary Adams knows how to schedule road trips.

The UCLA baseball team is taking an early spring break this week
when they travel to Hawai’i to take on the Hawai’i-Hilo
Vulcans on Wednesday and Thursday before wrapping up the trip with
a three game series against the University of Hawai’i
Warriors this weekend.

The Bruins (5-3) leave the mainland with a three game winning
streak and a new, confident attitude.

The quality of opponents may also be a vacation from the
normally difficult Pac-10 conference.

“I don’t care who we play or where we go,”
pitcher Casey Janssen said. “This isn’t a vacation.
It’s a business trip.”

Hawai’i-Hilo (1-18-1), has begun the season in terrible
fashion, getting blown out in most of their contests.

UH (2-5) will be a more difficult opponent than their record
implies. While they are struggling at the plate, the Warriors are
leading the Western Athletic Conference in fielding percentage and
stolen bases. First-year head coach Mike Trapasso’s pitching
staff has been holding its own against difficult opponents.

“The Bruins have a lot of talent this year, but
that’s no surprise,” Trapasso said. “They have a
long standing tradition of being a national caliber
team.”

The talented UCLA pitching staff, who has been riding high
lately with three straight solid outings, could have their vacation
cut short, not by the opposing hitters, but by the playing
surface.

All of the Hawai’i games will be played on astroturf. The
ball moves much faster on the artificial surface, which could pose
a problem for the UCLA pitchers, who thrive on groundball outs.

UCLA middle infielders Preston Griffin and Ryan Rasmussen have
only two defensive miscues in 40 opportunities, but will have to
react much faster than they normally do.

With five games in as many days, the Bruin pitching staff faces
another serious problem ““ having enough pitchers who can
throw strikes to fill 45 innings in a 120 hour span.

“Our top three guys will throw against Hawai’i, but
against Hilo, we’re going to need some of our untested
pitchers to step up and get us through this tough stretch,”
UCLA pitching coach Gary Adcock said.

Though the amount of baseball in such a short stretch will be
taxing, the Bruins will play at a vactioner’s paradise.

If the Bruins get caught up in sipping coconut drinks and
chasing girls in hula skirts instead of focusing on baseball, it
could be a long plane ride back to Los Angeles.

“If we turn this trip into a vacation, we could possibly
come back 0-5,” right fielder Adam Berry said.

“If we focus, we can fly home with five wins and 10-3
sounds pretty good right now.”