Baseball: Coach Adams opens final season

Today is the first baseball game of the year. It’s also
the last game.

Weather permitting, today is coach Gary Adams’ last first
game as his 30th and final season coaching the UCLA baseball team
gets under way at 3 p.m. at home against UC Riverside.

“To be honest,” Adams said, “I don’t
feel any different before the first game this year and the first
game last year, or any other year besides my first year. Of course,
if you ask if it’s more emotional before the last game I
coach, I’ll probably answer differently.”

Despite Adams not reserving any special personal significance to
today’s game, his season has already started off with
accolades commemorating his career. On Monday, it was announced
that he will be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches
Association Hall of Fame on Jan. 7, 2005 at the ABCA National
Convention in Nashville, Tenn. The award is the most prestigious a
college coach can receive and gives the UCLA program its second
inductee, joining Art Reichle, who coached UCLA from 1941 through
1974.

“It is a thrill for me to be on the same list as so many
great baseball coaches, both past and present,” Adams said.
“I feel very honored.”

Indeed, stories of Adams’s imminent departure from the
program will abound throughout the season. Yet below the main
story, the Bruins still have their normal schedule of games to
play, and they hope that today gets them off on the right foot.

But that first step may be a little wobbly as Riverside (1-2) is
one of the country’s up-and-coming programs, ranked as high
as No. 34 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s preseason
poll.

Further complicating matters, the Bruins are coming off of a
year in which they had trouble with midweek games. Last season they
dropped their first nine midweek games, including twice to the
Highlanders, 8-3 and 10-6.

“(The Highlanders) are ranked and we’re not,”
Adams said. “There’s no reason to take UCR lightly,
especially because they spanked us twice last year. They’ve
lost some players but still have got a lot of talent.”

Making the coveted opening-day start for the Bruins will be
senior Casey Janssen, who went 6-6 last year while leading the team
in strikeouts with 73 in 72 innings of work. Since it is the first
game of the year, though, Janssen will be held to a lower pitch
count. And with the Bruins’ next game a full 10 days away, a
number of pitchers could see action.

“I’m probably going to be held to three
innings,” Janssen said. “I’m looking forward to
getting the first game jitters out of the way. And I also know we
have a deep pitching staff, and I have confidence in
them.”

The opening-day lineup is composed of almost all familiar names
from last year, except for center fielder Chad Concolino, who has
missed the last two seasons due to injury.

“Offensively, I’m very excited,” hitting coach
Vince Beringhele said. “We’re returning the same guys
and although the outlook of last year wasn’t so rosy,
we’ve made unbelievable strides.”

However, Adams warns that this first lineup will not be his
last.

“Never in the history of my coaching career has the
opening-day lineup stayed the same as the lineup on the last day or
even in the middle of the season. The cream rises to the top.
I’m sure there will be changes.”