Offensive explosion imminent as UA visits UCLA

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior James Johnson throws a pitch to home plate earlier this season against New Mexico. The baseball team plays UCLA tonight in Los Angles

They'll be too busy practicing the "duck and cover" method of survival.

UCLA (14-22 overall, 8-13 Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division) boasts an 8.47 team ERA and Arizona (26-16, 7-11 Six-Pac) has a 6.06 mark, while the Wildcats lead the conference in hitting (.340) and the Bruins boast a healthy .300 average.

The last series between the two teams in Tucson resulted in scores of 16-14, 18-7 and 12-10, with Arizona winning the latter two games.

After exploding for 17 runs against Grand Canyon Tuesday night, ending a record-tying 11 game losing streak, Arizona is determined to continue its turnaround against the Bruins.

"We should all emphasize that we're on a new streak," senior first baseman Kenny Corley said. "A winning streak."

Corley hit his 11th home run of the season Tuesday, setting the new lifetime record for an Arizona player with 35 for his career.

Corley and the Wildcats' other sluggers will go up against Bruins center fielder Eric Valent, who leads the conference with 18 home runs. As a team, UCLA has hit 57 home runs this year, but the Wildcats have 73, led by senior outfielders Colin Porter and Jason Hendricks, who each have 12.

One of UCLA's biggest problems this season has been team defense. The Bruins have a .944 fielding percentage, with 80 errors that led to 82 unearned runs.

That has hampered a young pitching staff whose best member, left-hander Rob Henkel, was lost for the season to injury.

They will face an Arizona staff currently in a state of flux.

UA head coach Jerry Stitt said his rotation is a bit up in the air at the moment.

Tonight's game will pit left-hander James Johnson (4-3, 4.88 ERA) against the Bruins' Paul Diaz (1-1, 5.33).

Stitt said either senior Tyler Haddix (0-0, 5.58) or junior Darrell Hussman (3-5, 9.55) will start tomorrow's game against left-hander Ryan Carter (1-1, 6.26), with sophomore southpaw Tony Milo (7-2, 5.43) getting the nod Saturday. UCLA has not announced who will oppose him.

No matter who pitches, Stitt is proud the streak is over and that the players have seemingly regained their confidence.

"The coaches believed in them all along," Stitt said. "They just needed to believe in themselves again."