Loyola Is Prepared to Take the Title

Loyola Marymount’s freshman class of 1997 showed its talent during the 1998 season when the Lions won the West Coast Conference title and defeated Stanford in an NCAA regional game at Palo Alto before being eliminated.

“We would all be lying if we said that after that regional we didn’t think, ‘If we can play at this level this year, what can we do in a couple of years when we’re juniors?’ ” Loyola catcher Scott Walter said.

The answer: Plenty.

With Walter helping to lead the way, Loyola is ranked 14th by Collegiate Baseball and 17th by Baseball America after sweeping San Francisco in a three-game WCC series last weekend at San Francisco.

Loyola, the highest-ranked team in the Southland, is 32-15 overall and 18-6 in the WCC heading into this weekend’s conference series with Gonzaga (25-18, 15-8).

Loyola has won 19 of its last 24 games and five in a row. The Lions have not lost consecutive games since they were defeated by Gonzaga March 17 and 19 in Spokane, Wash.

“We think we’re able to compete with anybody around here or anywhere else in the country,” senior second baseman Anthony Angel said. “When they have you positioned in the rankings, you should play like you deserve it. We want to be in that top 10, so we’re going out every game to prove that we belong there.”

Walter, batting .357 with 12 home runs and 52 runs batted in, has helped lead Loyola’s offensive charge, but he is only one of several powerful hitters in the lineup.

Junior outfielder and third baseman Jason Aspito, a transfer from Texas, is batting .367 with nine homers and 47 RBIs, sophomore first baseman Kris Zacuto is hitting .355 with eight homers and 48 RBIs, and Angel is batting .333 with nine homers and a team-high 66 RBIs.

Three of Angel’s homers were grand slams.

“There are a lot of teams that don’t want to pitch to Scott Walter and a lot of them that don’t want to pitch to Jason Aspito--so they come after me,” Angel said. “But really, we’re pretty solid, one through nine. It doesn’t matter who is up there, everyone is capable of coming through with a big hit and everyone has done it at some point this season.”

Loyola’s pitching staff has also impressed at times.

Junior left-hander Billy Traber is 6-4 with a 6.76 earned-run average and has 109 strikeouts in 91 innings. Senior left-hander Ben Bonilla is 8-0 with a 4.54 ERA. Junior right-hander Michael Schultz, who held Stanford to two hits as a freshman and struck out 12 in a victory over USF last Sunday, is 7-4 with a 6.47 ERA.

“We have confidence in all three of them,” Walter said. “And this is the time of the year when Schultz really starts to turn it on. He is a big-game pitcher.”

Last year, the Lions won the WCC title and advanced to a regional at Stanford for the second consecutive year.

With nonconference victories over UCLA, No. 17 Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State in the last few weeks, Loyola has bumped up its score on the NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index--which is used as part of the formula for determining playoff participants and regional seeding.

The Lions have an opportunity to take a big step toward their third consecutive WCC title this weekend. Loyola is 2 1/2 games ahead of Gonzaga in the WCC’s Coast division with six conference games remaining.

The teams will play a single game Friday, but there will be no games Saturday because of graduation ceremonies on Loyola’s campus. The series will conclude with a Sunday doubleheader.

“We’ve done OK in terms of bouncing back after hitting a lot of bumps in the road,” Angel said. “But this weekend is big. We have to be ready to respond.”

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UCLA swept three games against Washington State last weekend, improving to 28-20 and 11-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference. The Bruins are in second place in the conference, half a game behind third-ranked Stanford (35-11, 13-5). UCLA plays host to California (24-24, 10-11) this weekend.

USC (30-18, 10-8) is in fourth place, three games behind Stanford. The Trojans won two of three against No. 5 Arizona State last weekend. USC plays a make-up game against Fullerton next Wednesday and resumes conference play May 12 against Oregon State.

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Fullerton (27-15, 15-6) leads the Big West Conference and plays host to second-place Nevada (30-15, 14-7) this weekend.

Long Beach (26-19, 13-8) ended a six-game losing streak by winning the series finale at Miami on Sunday. The 49ers, in third place in the Big West, play host to Pacific (22-23, 5-16) this weekend.

Fourth-place UC Santa Barbara (22-21, 12-9) visits last-place New Mexico State (17-29, 2-19).