The Arizona baseball team will be in Berkeley today for the first game of a three-game series with California. With the Wildcats and the Bears sitting at last and second to last, respectively, in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, the series is almost totally meaningless.

Almost.

"They're one game ahead of us, and we would like to escape the cellar," Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall said. "We would like to take the series up there and escape the cellar. That's our motivation, and believe me, it's a strong one."

The Wildcats (23-27 overall, 6-18 in the Six-Pac) are coming off a hard-fought victory over Grand Canyon on Tuesday, and are looking to continue their winning ways against Cal (24-25, 7-17).

"It's definitely better going in with a win," pitcher Matt Hendren said. "I personally don't think Cal is better than us. They match up pretty well with us. We didn't do a good job as pitchers of holding the runners last time we played them, but it will be different this time, and I think we'll do real well."

The Golden Bears, fresh off a three-game series sweep at the hands of conference-leading Southern Cal, are batting .292, and the pitchers have a team ERA of 5.13. They are led by juniors Dan Cey, who is batting .404, and Ivan Lewis, who leads the Six-Pac in stolen bases with 39.

The Wildcats were swept by the Bears in mid-March at Sancet Field. The scores in the three games were 13-3, 8-4 and 15-2. UA leads the overall series 69-41.

The starting pitcher for the Wildcats today will be left-hander Shawn Barrington (1-6, 7.07 ERA). Right-hander Tyler Haddix (4-5, 5.29 ERA) goes tomorrow, and left-hander Ben White (3-4, 3.53 ERA) starts on Sunday.