Pac-12 Historical Level HR Hitting Team....

1997 team broke (10) records...The team broke 10 records: wins in a season (47), runs scored in a season (631), runs scored in an inning (13), hits in an inning (10), runs scored in an inning without an out being recorded (13), hits in a game (31), hits in a doubleheader (51), runs in a doubleheader (36), home runs in a season (142) and doubles in a season (173).

"The 1997 team won the Pac-10 title with a 43–18 record (21–9 Pac-10) and reached in the CWS. The team was led by head coach Gary Adams and included future Major League Baseball players Troy Glaus, Jim Parque, and Eric Byrnes. Jon Heinrichs, Tom Jacquez, Eric Valent, and Peter Zamora also played on the team. During the season, UCLA held a number one ranking, and the team finished the season ranked sixth.

At the NCAA tournament Midwest Regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the Bruins lost the first game to Harvard, but won the next four games, against Ohio, Tennessee, Harvard, and Oklahoma State, in order to advance to the College World Series.

At the College World Series, UCLA struggled with poor pitching and defense and lost its first game to Miami, 7–3 (12 innings), and was eliminated by Mississippi State, 7–5, in their second game."

I believe they said they had (3) guys hit more than (25) HRs, Troy Glaus lead with (34)... still the record. It appears (20) guy off that roster ('97 or '98 drafts) were drafted, Glaus (1-3), with (5) having multiple seasons at the MLB level. With (6) more topping out at AAA.

The 1998 Bruins featured Chase Utley, Eric Valent, Garrett Atkins and Eric Byrnes. All had solid MLB careers; some consider Utley a borderline HOFer and Atkins had some great years with Colorado before flaming out at 30.

We swept them in the final series at Coleman Field.

Yep... the tail end of it. The weight/length differential was a big deal back then. You could swing a 34" big barrel that weight 28 ounces. Then the BESR and (-3) weight ratio was implemented. But, it really did not last long as better alloys/composites were made and player/teams could create "hot" bats. Even though these bats met BESR initially, they were never retested. And, players found the more the bats were used, the better the "pop" off the bat became (trampoline effect). I had teams that would use the same bat or two until it was cracked. Personal bats once never used for BP were used all the time to "break them in", called "rolled" bats. In a 8-9 years the offensive output was back to "gorilla ball" standards.

"In 2009, the NCAA tested 25 bats at the College World Series. Although all of those bats had met BESR standards when new, it found that 20 of the 25 bats failed to meet the BESR standards when retested after being used in games."

If you look thru the history it is a never ending battle to limit, fix overcorrection, fix again. In 2010-2011 the BBCOR standard went into effect to control the trampoline effect. An overcorrection... as a team like UCLA who had hit 142 HRs in 1997 The 1998 title game was 21-14 USC over ASU!) and was 2 and cue in the CWS, won the CWS title in 2013 hitting a TOTAL of (19) HRs!!

"By 2014, the home run rate around Division I was 0.39 per game, lower than it was in the final years of the wood bat era in the early 1970s. In 2014, batters hit one home run every 98 plate appearances. In 2010, they had hit one every 43 plate appearances."

So... of course a new "fix! But this time it was to lower the seams on the ball itself to lower the drag coefficient. Less drag, more distance. Doesn't help averages or Ks as they have climbed, but HRs have kept runs per game higher and back to the norm before all the changes. Bats are also test prior to a season and prior to each series.

Ok... there is more info than anyone wanted to know...

UCLA hit 142 home runs in 1997.

Troy Glaus hit 34 homers, Jon Heinrichs hit 28, Eric Valent hit 27, Eric Byrnes hit 17, Peter Zamora hit 16, Nick Theodorou hit 6, Brett Nista hit 4, Casey Cloud hit 3, Jack Santora hit 2, and five others hit one.  

UCLA finished second in the Pac-10 South behind Stanford at 19-11 and 40-18-1 overall.  The Pac-10 South Championship came down to a final three-game series against Stanford at Jackie Robinson.  Much like Oregon State this year, UCLA needed to sweep to claim the Pac-10 South Championship.  UCLA won Game One 10-9 and Game Two 13-8 but dropped Game Three 9-6 and the Pac-10 South as a result.  UCLA followed that up by losing to Cal State Northridge 12-6 to finish up the regular season.

The Pac-10 South Champion, Stanford, hosted the six-team West Regional and beat Northeastern 12-3, Texas A&M 3-1, Santa Clara 10-7, and Fresno State 5-2 in the Championship Game.

UCLA was named a #1 seed but was shipped to the Midwest Regional, hosted by Oklahoma State, which was awarded a #3 seed.  UCLA was upset by #6 Harvard 7-2.  UCLA came out of the losers' bracket with a 15-1 win over #5 Ohio, a 5-3 win over #2 Tennessee, a 14-9 win over #6 Harvard, and then two hilarious wins over the hosts, 14-2 and 22-2.  The five consecutive wins punched UCLA's ticket to Omaha with an overall record of 45-19-1.

UCLA finished ninth in the nation in scoring at 9.7 runs/game.  In 2024, 9.7 runs/game would be good for third.  

By winning the Midwest Regional, UCLA played in its first College World Series in 28 years and second ever.  The Bruins had never won a game at the College World Series, going 0-2 in 1969.  UCLA would not win a game at the College World Series for another 13 years, first winning a College World Series game in 2010.

At the time, the Tournament was reseeded between the Regionals and the College World Series.  The five one-seeds which won Regionals were given seeds 1-5.  The three two-seeds were given seeds 6-8.  UCLA was seeded four and played Miami the five-seed.  Miami and UCLA were the only one seeds, who had to play each other.  The 1-3 seeds--Bama, LSU, and Stanford--each won their opener.

At the time, the College World Series started the Friday after Memorial Day.  Miami and UCLA played in the first game on Saturday.

Miami won in 12 innings after UCLA's closer tired and gave up four straight walks in the 12th.  The Bruins blew their ace, Saturday starter, and closer in the loss.  Byrnes singled in the ninth, and Glaus hit the game-tying homer right after Byrnes singled.  Glaus broke Mark McGwire's single season Pac-10 home run record (32) with his 33rd home run.  UCLA issued a College World Series record 16 walks in the loss.

Against Mississippi State, UCLA led 3-2 in the sixth and 4-3 in the seventh but could hold neither lead.  The Bruins' closer, who went long against the Canes came back and gave up three runs in two innings on four hits and a walk.  Although, to be fair, none of the runs were earned.  Glaus hit his 34th home run against Mississippi State to set the Pac-10/12 record.  Glaus' two homers were the only UCLA homers in Omaha after the Bruins combined to hit140 in the 65 games before.

Oregon State has 11 games left at most. In order to tie the record, the Beavs would have to average hitting more than two per game. However, The Beavs have already hit seven twice this year. Oregon State absolutely needs to go to Omaha to catch UCLA. It would be unbelievable to tie the record in three and lose twice.  With all of that said, Oregon State would need to play the maximum 11 games in order to play in the same 67 games that UCLA played in in 1997.