MATT HEISTAND/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona sophomore Chris Goodman winds up for a pitch Sunday against Stanford at Sancet Field. Goodman and the Wildcats travel to California for a three-game set against the Golden Bears starting today.

Arizona could have headed into today's series against California with a 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference record. Instead, UA is 3-6 because it failed to nail down a few victories.

UA allowed three Arizona State runs in the top of the ninth inning in a 9-7 loss on March 22. The next day Arizona lost 10-6 after it tied the game in the fourth inning.

Oregon State's Tom Creighton led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run to beat the Wildcats in Corvallis, Ore., 2-1 on March 29.

Against Stanford, UA lost 5-4 in 18 innings on April 5.

"(Head coach Andy) Lopez really emphasized (that) we dug ourselves into a hole," sophomore pitcher Chris Goodman said. "He thinks this weekend we need to stop making mistakes we've had in the beginning of the conference schedule."

Arizona (22-14 overall, 3-6 Pac-10) is currently eighth out of the nine-team conference. A couple wins against the Golden Bears (22-16, 5-4) would put it back into the conference championship race.

"We know that we can compete and beat anyone if we play our best," third baseman John Hardy said.

Goodman picked up his second win of the year in Sunday's 15-13 win against Stanford in eight innings. The sophomore gave up one run on four hits in 4 2/3 innings of relief as Arizona came back from a 10-1 deficit.

"I was glad to keep us in striking distance because I knew our hitters were on the verge of breaking out," he said.

The bullpen has gotten stronger throughout the season. In the April 5 loss, three pitchers allowed a combined two runs over 10 innings. Pitching coach Jeff Morris has emphasized keeping pitches down to get ground-ball outs but has been pleased with the relief performances, Goodman said.

UA ended practices on Tuesday and Wednesday with the position players taking live at-bats against their own pitcher.

"We wanted to get in the mode to see Pac-10 pitching. In those practices, we did a lot of hitting because that's how the conference goes," Hardy said.

The third baseman, who has 23 RBIs on the season, singled home the go-ahead runs in Sunday's win against the Cardinal.

Hardy started two games at second base in the ASU series but made four errors. He is now back at third, but the changing of positions has continued for the Wildcats.

Left fielder Justyn St. Clair played some games in right to replace the injured Jeff Van Houten. Catcher Chris Cunningham has started some games at first base. Freshman Pat Reilly has split time between right field and first. Sophomore Marc Kaiser, a left fielder and a starting pitcher, played at first two weeks ago against OSU and took grounders during this week's practice.

"We heard that Lopez likes to move his players around to see what will work. I don't think it'll ever stop because those positions are changing a lot," Hardy said.

California pitcher Trevor Hutchinson was named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week when he earned his seventh victory of the season in a 5-3 win over UCLA last Friday. Today, he will face UA's Sean Rierson (5-2, 3.93 ERA).

Brian Montalbo (3-5, 4.91 ERA) is scheduled to match up against Kaiser (5-2, 3.95 ERA). Sunday's Golden Bear starter is still undecided, while UA will start Joe Little (5-3, 54 strikeouts).

Today's game begins at 2:30 p.m., and the games on Saturday and Sunday start at 1 p.m.