By Charles Renning
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, April 16, 2004
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The Arizona baseball team will close out a seven-day, six-game stretch this weekend with a non-
conference match up against UT Pan American at Sancet Stadium.
The Wildcats (18-15-1) and Broncs open the three-game set tonight at 7. The series continues tomorrow at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Sophomore John Meloan (2-0) will get his second start of the year for the Wildcats. In his first start, Meloan threw eight innings, giving up three runs in earning the victory.
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UA vs. UT Pan Am
Today ð 7 p.m.
Tomorrow ð 7 p.m.
Sunday ð 1 p.m.
Sancet Stadium
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The Wildcats come into the series after playing 10 games in the last 12 days.
"I was hoping playing every day would help from an offensive standpoint," head coach Andy Lopez said. "As a hitter you need to play every day if you want to get in a rhythm."
Junior catcher Richard Mercado continues to lead the team with a .372 batting average, followed by sophomore first baseman Jordan Brown at .351.
Arizona had been struggling to score recently, but the Wildcats scored 11 and 10 runs in a two-game sweep over UNLV this week.
The stretch of playing every day was also a good test for the pitching staff, according to Lopez, who was pleased with the overall performance of his thin staff.
Juniors Koley Kolberg and Kevin Guyette are scheduled to pitch tomorrow and Sunday, respectively. Both will work on just three days of rest.
Lopez said Kolberg and Guyette will be held to 60-70 pitches, but neither should be affected too much by the quick turnaround.
"They are both (veteran) guys, and I'll be shocked if it affects them," Lopez said.
He added that both players want to play professional baseball one day, and this would be a good test to see how they handle frequent starts.
After losing their first Pacific 10 Conference series of the year last weekend to UCLA, the Wildcats played three midweek games. They hope the wins in Las Vegas and a series sweep over UT Pan Am will give them momentum heading into the final stretch of the Pac-10 schedule.
"We expect to sweep Pan Am," Kolberg said. "If we can win five in a row, we'll be pretty hard to stop."
"What we do in the Pac-10 from here on out will determine where we end up this season," Lopez said.
Arizona resumes Pac-10 play next weekend when it travels to Seattle to play Washington.
