Josh Fields/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman David Coulon pitches during Arizona's 16-8 loss against Washington Saturday. The Wildcats travel to UCLA to take on the Bruins this weekend in their second Pac-10 series.

Following three straight poor Sunday performances, the No. 10 Arizona baseball team hits the road this weekend for the first time in conference play in search of a third starter.

The Wildcats (18-10, 2-1 Pacific 10 Conference) picked the perfect team for that pursuit, as UCLA (7-14, 0-0) has dropped 10 games in a row.

Although the Bruins own the conference's only losing record, Arizona junior catcher Nick Hundley said they would be ready to play in their conference opener.

"Whenever you're playing a Pac-10 opponent, if you overlook them you're going to lose, so that's the biggest thing," Hundley said. "They've got a lot of talent. Their record hasn't shown that yet, but they're going to be up for us."

Junior John Meloan (5-0, 3.38 ERA) gets the start today against Bryan Beck (0-3, 5.14) at 8 p.m.

Junior Kevin Guyette (4-2, 4.01) goes against Hector Ambriz (2-1, 1.96) tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Arizona holds a 12-4 record with a 3.14 ERA and 197 strikeouts on those days.

In series finale games, often on Sundays, these statistics drop to 3-5 with a 7.47 ERA and 58 strikeouts.

The discrepancy has been even worse over the past three weeks, with Wildcat pitchers going 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA, 14 strikeouts, 16 walks and nine hit batters in the last three finales.

This is after posting a 5-1 record with a 3.86 ERA, 78 strikeouts, 21 walks and four hit batters in the first two games of the series.

Freshman David Coulon (2-1, 5.89) said he will pitch Sunday over senior Sean Rierson (2-2, 7.66), but Rierson will be ready if Coulon falters early. The Bruins are undecided on their Sunday starter.

Rierson said the team needs someone to step up, whether it's him or past third starters Coulon and freshman Eric Berger (2-0, 6.00).

Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said freshman Matt Baugh (0-0, 0.00) and sophomore Brad Mills (0-0, 0.00) would be options if that trio continues to struggle.

"It's a good problem to have when you've got plenty of pitchers who can get it done," Rierson said. "Somebody's got to come out and throw up some zeroes whether it's a freshman, whether it's me or someone else. I think it's something at the end of the year that's a bad problem to have. Right now we still have time to figure it out."

Lopez said he hopes one of the choices will emerge as a consistent third starter.

"The lack of consistency is what has hurt us more than anything in the last three Sundays," he said. "Prior to that, those guys were pitching OK on those Sundays, so it's not like they haven't done it. They've just had a little bit of a bump in the road here, and so we want to make sure we get that ironed out soon as we can."

They will try to fix the problem this week at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles, where they have plenty of experience, having played there the past two years.

Lopez, who played college ball at UCLA, called the stadium a hitter's park.

"It's a short park," Rierson said. "You've got to pitch down. The ball doesn't carry as much as it does (at Sancet Stadium)."

The Wildcat hitters should use this to their advantage more than their Bruin counterparts.

While Arizona leads the Pac-10 in batting average and runs scored and ranks second in home runs, UCLA holds the bottom spot in all three categories.

Arizona out-hits the Bruins .335 to .268, has scored 242 runs to UCLA's 105 and has hit 29 home runs compared to the Bruins' seven.

The UCLA pitching staff also possesses the Pac-10's worst ERA at 5.11.

"There's always a sweep possibility with us, but it's also possible to lose the series, so we definitely need to still play hard and play the game soundly. We have a chance to win every game we play," Hundley said.

Judging by the past few weeks, Sunday's game stands as the biggest obstacle to Arizona's first series sweep since taking all three games from Northern Colorado Feb. 12-13.

"We just need to go out there and do what we haven't done on Sunday this weekend," Rierson said. "We need to throw up some zeroes. If we throw up zeroes, our offense is going to get us a win on Sunday."