The story about a coach telling his pitcher to hit the opposing batter is an old one.

The coach tells the pitcher to bean the batter because he has been particularly effective, or maybe it could be in retaliation for the opposing pitcher hitting one of their batters. Whatever the reasons, the problem has come to a head in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division.

UCLA head coach Gary Adams took a stand against a lenient NCAA policy which allows the coach who orders a hit batter to receive a one-game suspension, while the pitcher gets four games.

The reason for the rule is simple - pitchers play on a four- day rotation, so the pitcher could be suspended for a game that he wouldn't have been scheduled to play in. A coach, though, has a major role in every game.

Adams thought differently. In protest, he ordered pitcher Pete Zamora to hit Arizona State's Mikel Moreno with the first pitch of Sunday's game in Tempe. Zamora missed on the first attempt, but hit Moreno in the upper leg with the second pitch. He was subsequently thrown out of the game along with Adams. The ordered pitch was in response to Arizona State's Ryan Bradley, who was ejected after beaning infielder Troy Glaus in the head in Saturday's game. It was the second time this season that Bradley hit Glaus, but the only time he was ejected.

"The throwing at batters will never cease until you punish the coach," Adams said, who suspended himself for three games. "That's how you stop it. The situation is getting worse, at least it is in our league."

Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall, who has known Adams since he was a coach at UC-Irvine, and said the Bruin coach is "a man of integrity," agreed that coaches who order beanings should face stiffer punishment.

"They simply have no place in baseball," Kindall said about ordered beanings. "The pitcher has a lethal weapon. I've seen terrible injuries come from players being hit by pitches. It could end a player's career."

Kindall added that this kind of behavior has never happened to his team.

"If it did happen, I would be very disappointed in the coach who ordered the pitch," Kindall said. "If the pitch is ordered, the penalty should be a good, sturdy suspension."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.