By Chris Jackson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 22, 1998

UA could lose 6 underclassmen

The Arizona baseball team's nine seniors were honored before their final conference home game on Sunday, but they might not be the only ones leaving.

Six of UA's more prominent juniors, pitchers Darrell Hussman, Rob Shabansky, James Johnson, Ryan Moskau, catcher Greg Clark and third baseman Omar Moraga, could forego their senior years and opt for the Major League Baseball amateur draft this summer.

Hussman, despite struggling on the mound this year with a 3-5 record and a 10.04 ERA, has said he is almost certain not to return.

"I'm just looking at this as the end of my college career," Hussman said after the 17-1 loss to Stanford Sunday.

Hussman has called his time at Arizona "a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"But as soon as our season's over, I have to start focusing on the next level," he said, referring to pitching professionally.

The other five have put even more impressive numbers this year than Hussman. Clark is batting .324 with 12 homers and 50 RBI, while Moraga is hitting .337 with four homers, 39 RBI and a team-high 19 doubles. Shabansky is batting .413 with two homers and 16 RBI as a designated hitter and was 5-1 with a 3.35 ERA on the mound before injuring his elbow in late February. Johnson is 6-3 with a 4.85 ERA and a team-high 104 strikeouts, while Moskau leads the club with six saves in addition to his 4.54 ERA and 4-3 record.

How hot is Arizona State?

Just ask the Sun Devils' last four conference opponents. They were all swept in a three-game series.

ASU has won 11 in a row, 15 of its last 17 and 12 in a row in Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division play.

Junior southpaw Ryan Mills was named national player of the week when he struck out 15 Southern Cal Trojans on April 9.

Freshman first baseman/DH Casey Myers went 9 for 17 with three homers and nine RBI to be named Six-Pac player of the week.

ASU has won by an average of 7.5 runs a game, with a high score of 24 runs against USC.

"We got them started on their roll," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said.

The Sun Devils had dropped six of 11 games coming into the early April series with Arizona, including being swept at USC and losing two of three to Washington.

"They were really scuffling then; we both were. Since then they've been on fire," Stitt said.

The Wildcats were the first of four victims to be swept by ASU, losing 4-3, 20-12 and 12-4.

In the further pursuit of ignominious records, the California baseball team found yet another way to lose over the weekend.

Cal scored nine runs before Southern Cal could even get on the board on Saturday, with a big three-run first inning and a five-run third.

Then it all fell apart.

Trojan shortstop Seth Davidson hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third, completing a seven-run outburst that cut the Golden Bears' lead to 9-7.

Two more Cal home runs, giving them five on the day, pushed the lead back to 13-7 in the top of the fourth, but USC continued to chip away with one run in the fifth and two in the sixth.

With the score 13-10, two outs on the board and only one runner on base, the Bears still seemed to have the game in hand in the bottom of the eighth.

A single and a walk loaded the bases, and then Trojan left fielder Jeremy Freitas ripped a two-run single to cut the lead to one.

The Bears pulled pitcher Brad Steele and put in freshman Rob Meyer, who promptly threw a wild pitch to advance the two runners on base. After Davidson was intentionally walked, Meyer walked the next two batters he faced, forcing in the final two runs and giving USC the 14-13 win.

Next up for the Bears is a three-game series with top-ranked Stanford, a series where anything could happen, seeing as how Cal upset the Cardinal earlier this year.

Just don't expect to see Myers come in to pitch with anyone on base.

Pacific 10 Conference

Baseball Standings

	Southern Division
		Conf.	Overall

Stanford	16-5	33-7-1
Arizona State	17-6	31-14-0
Southern Cal	17-7	32-12-0
Arizona		9-15   29-20-0
UCLA		10-17	17-26-0
California	 2-21	14-27-0

	Northern Division
		Conf.	Overall

Oregon State	11-4	 27-9-1
Washington	10-6	 24-13-0
Washington St.	9-6	 19-17-0
Portland State	1-15	 12-25-0