UA travels to Southern Cal

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat UA second baseman Erik Mattern (16) throws to first base. Arizona starts a three-game series against No. 7 USC tonight in Los Angeles.

Last season, Southern Cal finished first in the conference while Arizona's baseball team was dead last.

The Trojans had the Pacific 10 Southern Division pitcher of the year. The Wildcats had a team ERA of 7.40.

In the six meetings last year, Southern Cal won five and outscored Arizona, 55-20.

If the beginning of this season is any indication, though, do not plan to see history repeat itself.

No. 21 Arizona (21-10, 5-1 in the Six-Pac) will meet No. 7 Southern Cal ( 20-6, 5-4 in the Six-Pac) in a three game series in Los Angeles that starts tonight at 7.

"If (we) just focus and play the game, we will be okay," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said.

Led by solid pitching and strong hitting, the Wildcats are sitting on top of the Six-Pac, tied with Stanford, after sweeping Cal in Berkeley and taking two of three against then-No. 1 UCLA.

USC, on the other hand, is currently in third after taking two of three from Arizona State, getting swept by Stanford and then sweeping Cal.

"We feel very confident," UA second baseman Erik Mattern said about the series against the Trojans. "When you have confidence, a lot of things go your way. Little things that usually get you down, you can now just pick yourself right up because you know s omething good is going to come from it."

The Wildcats have good reason to believe in themselves. The pitchers especially, who are doing what no coach in the conference thought they could do when they picked Arizona to finish last in the preseason.

Darrell Hussman (3-1) was recently named Pac-10 pitcher of the week after his complete game win over UCLA. Rob Shabansky (6-1) has been hot all year, sporting a 2.77 ERA with opponents batting only .210 against him.

Hussman starts today with Shabansky pitching tomorrow afternoon. Sophomore left-hander James Johnson will get the call for the series finale on Sunday.

USC will counter with senior left-hander Randy Flores and junior right-hander Seth Etherton. They have each claimed the Pac 10 pitcher of the year honors. Flores is currently 5-2 with a 2.93 ERA and Etherton is 4-0 with a 3.02 ERA, plus 47 strikeouts in 4 7 2/3 innings.

"They have great pitching in all the ways," Stitt said. "Short, middle, and starting, they got some real quality guys."

One area of major improvement for Arizona has been on the base paths. So far this season the team has swiped 66 bases,with 27 games still to play. Last year, they managed 78 total.

"We are always working on stuff, trying to improve our secondary lead," Stitt said. "We look to steal third, and hit and run a lot."

Junior center fielder Diego Rico, who had a pair of triples and three RBI Wednesday against Radford, is beginning to show signs of why he highly-touted recruit. USC is led offensively by sophomore outfielder Greg Hanoian, who is hitting .506. Freshman cat cher Eric Munson paces USC with six home runs.