This was supposed to be the year when the UA baseball team started to recover some of its past glory after two straight losing seasons. But with a record of 23-30 overall, 6-21 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, the Wildcats won't even reach .500. Some have even speculated that UA's legendary head coach, Jerry Kindall, might retire after the disappointing 1996 season. Kindall has been coaching the Wildcats longer than many students at this university have been alive. Since 1973, Kindall's teams has experienced just six losing seasons - this will be the seventh - and have won NCAA titles in 1976, 1980 and 1986.

It's only been after three losing seasons in a row that people began to think the Kindall era might be over.

"It's all very premature," Kindall said of the speculations about his retirement. "Other people are thinking about it more than I am. Once the issue is raised, then people have to talk about it."

This year was especially tough for a team that had such tremendous expectations. UA was 11-2 until being swept in a three-game series with defending national champion Cal State-Fullerton in Fullerton.

"We played very well in that series. After that, for some reason we couldn't get the winning feeling again," Kindall said.

Since Fullerton, the Wildcats were able to win only four of their last 13 series. The problem has been attributed primarily to pitching. In the Six-Pac, where pitching is everything, the Arizona pitching isn't competitive.

"A couple of our key hitters have gone through slumps, but statistics show that we haven't been able to get the hitters out," Kindall said about the losses. "We expected better from every part of our baseball team. These guys have hustled hard. It's just they scored too many runs against us."

The last series of the year will be played this weekend against Arizona State at Sancet Field. The first game is Friday night at 7 p.m.