Accolades Keep Rolling in for Bruin Baseball
June 1, 1999
Several Bruins earned postseason awards while participating in the 1999 Wichita Regional. Sophomore LF Bill Scott, who leads the team in home runs (28), RBI (86), batting average (.380), and slugging percentage (.806) was named a third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. He was also placed on the 1999 Wichita Regional all-tournament team. Scott went 8-for-16 (.500) with five runs, seven RBI, and three home runs in three regional games. He homered in his seventh consecutive game in game #1 on Friday, tying the Pac-10 record set by George Arias of Arizona in 1993. Scott's streak ended the next day in game #1 of a double header, but he picked up the slack by homering twice in game #2. His two roundtrippers against Oklahoma State in the Saturday nightcap gave him 28 for the season, breaking the UCLA sophomore record of 27 set by Eric Valent in 1997. He ends the season on a 12-game hitting streak.
Also earning all-tournament honors were freshman RHP Josh Karp and sophomore 1B Garrett Atkins. Karp was named to the All-regional team by virtue of a dominating performance in UCLA's 12-6 opening round victory against Oklahoma State. He allowed just one run off three hits while striking out eight in 6.2 IP to grab his team-leading eighth victory of the year. In addition, Karp was named to Baseball Weekly's inaugural Freshman All-American team earlier in the week.
Atkins was the third Bruin named to the Wichita regional team. The hottest Bruin of late, Atkins was 7-for-14 (.500) with three runs, four RBI, and two homers in three games. In game #1, he was 4-for-5 with a home run, a double, and three RBI. He ends the year on a 12-game hitting streak in which he is batting .491 (28-57) with 12 runs, 14 RBI, five 2B, and seven home runs.