Ellis Finally Gets in the Swing of Things : College baseball: After becoming aggressive at the plate, the UCLA catcher leads the country in home runs with 23.

Paul Ellis did not become one of college baseball’s best power hitters by overhauling his swing.

All he did was finally unleash the one he already had.

After hitting only five home runs in his first two seasons at UCLA, Ellis dislodged his bat from its almost permanent resting place on his left shoulder this spring and has swung into the national home run lead and to a spot near the top of the draft lists of most major league scouts.

Before the Bruins’ series with USC this weekend, the junior catcher from San Ramon, Calif., had hit 23 home runs in 48 games. The UCLA single-season record is 29, set by Jim Auten in 1979.

“Last year, we’d say, ‘Paul, you have to hit one out.’ And he’d come back with, ‘Hey, I’m just a line-drive hitter,’ ” UCLA pitcher Dave Zancanaro said. “Now, it’s, ‘Paul, why don’t you hit one out?’ And he says, ‘I’m going to.’ ”

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Ellis has homered against every Pacific 10 Southern Division opponent except USC. He’s getting that chance in the three-game series between the Bruins and the No. 6 Trojans. UCLA plays host to the series today at 1 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Stadium, then the series moves back to USC’s Dedeaux Field Sunday at 1.

“I’m afraid we’re dealing with the law of averages,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “I wish we had his homers behind us rather than ahead. He’s really come out of relative obscurity to become one of the outstanding players in the country.”

In a recent issue of Baseball America, Ellis, 21, was rated among the nation’s top 25 college prospects by major league scouting directors.

He is the latest in a line of talented Bruin catchers that includes Don Slaught of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Todd Zeile of the St. Louis Cardinals and Bill Haselman, a former No. 1 draft choice who is in the Texas Rangers’ minor league system.

“Paul is similar to those guys in temperament and personality,” said UCLA Coach Gary Adams, in his 16th season with the Bruins. “His approach at the plate is no different than theirs when they graduated from UCLA.”

Ellis’ development, however, has been much more sudden than his predecessors’. None of them were tentative when it came to taking their swings.

Ellis, the Northern California high school player of the year in 1987, arrived in Westwood after a senior season at San Ramon Valley High in which he batted .467 with seven home runs and 42 RBIs.

His selectivity at the plate initially impressed Adams, who liked the fact that Ellis laid off pitches outside the strike zone. But Adams’ satisfaction slowly turned to frustration when Ellis displayed the same lack of interest in pitches inside the strike zone.

“For a big kid, he was a very timid hitter,” Adams said. “He went to the plate and his bat would just sit on his shoulder while he waited for a perfect pitch that never came.”

Said Ellis: “In my mind, missing the ball or striking out was the worst thing you could do. So I’d always wait for a pitch, end up with two strikes and then try to make contact. I usually ended up hitting a little grounder.”

Ellis hit one home run and batted .281 in 37 games as a freshman. Last season, he increased his home run output to four and was batting .281 when he injured his right shoulder in a home plate collision against Stanford.

The injury forced him to miss the Bruins’ final 13 games and required off-season surgery.

Adams gave Ellis most of the fall to get his arm and body back into shape. But he issued Ellis an ultimatum after a practice game against Santa Monica College.

“I told him if he didn’t start using his ability, he was going to be hitting eighth or ninth,” Adams said. “And if he continued taking so many pitches, he was going to be sitting on the bench.”

Ellis reacted by swinging at pitches in the dirt and over his head.

“I was just trying to show him (Adams) that I wasn’t afraid to miss a pitch,” he said.

Since the season began, Ellis hasn’t missed a beat. He is batting .354 and has 65 runs batted in. And despite his new, aggressive approach, he has struck out only 15 times in 180 at-bats.

As Ellis’ home run total has increased, opponents have taken to either pitching around him, or directly at him. He has been hit a school-record 10 times. During one stretch in March, he was hit seven times in five games.

“I guess they’re trying to get me off the plate,” Ellis said. “Instead of intentionally walking me with four pitches, they’re saying, ‘We’re going to use one and put it in your back.’ ”

Ellis hopes a continued personal assault on opposing pitchers will help propel the Bruins back into the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1987.

Before starting the weekend series, UCLA was 31-17 and in fourth place in the Pac-10 Southern Division with a 13-14 record. Third-place USC was 32-16 and 15-9 and is UCLA’s final conference opponent.

“I had always heard about the tradition of catchers here, but I wasn’t sure how I would fit into it,” he said. “I guess after this season, I finally belong.”