Inconsistency reared its ugly head once again for the Arizona baseball team this weekend.

After winning the series opener on Thursday, the Wildcats (15-18, 3-6 Pacific 10 Conference) dropped the final two games to UCLA (20-15, 5-4) in their Pac-10 home-opening series, as Arizona fell 8-5 Saturday and 13-8 Friday at Sancet Stadium.

The Wildcats haven’t won a Pac-10 series this season, losing each of the last three weekends to conference foes.

“”Man, we’ve got to get hot,”” said Arizona head coach Andy Lopez. “”There’s no other way to describe it. We’ve got to win some games in conference ASAP. We’re running out of time.””

There are only five series against Pac-10 opponents remaining in the season.

“”I think there are signs that we are swinging it over the last three weeks in conference, which is a good thing,”” Lopez said. “”Now that we’re swinging it, the pitching seems to have gone south a little bit.””

A week after dominating No. 11 Oregon State on the road, sophomore southpaw David Coulon (1-3) exhibited little of the control that he demonstrated against the Beavers. Coulon suffered the loss and lasted only two innings, giving up six earned runs and eight hits while walking three.

“”If I knew (what was wrong with Coulon’s performance), I would have gone out there after the first walk and said, ‘Point your left pinky in the other direction. Or can you tweak your nose a little bit,'”” Lopez said. “”He looked great in the bullpen.””

Arizona trailed 7-2 after two frames when Coulon’s afternoon ended, and the bullpen came in and shut down UCLA’s bats. Freshman right-hander Ryan Perry gave up a run in four innings and sophomore lefty Matt Baugh pitched three scoreless innings.

The Wildcats tried to mount a rally by scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, capped off by a two-run double by junior shortstop Jason Donald, but it was too little, too late.

“”There’s nothing we can do but keep playing,”” Donald said. “”We’ve just got to stick with it. They don’t accept you into the postseason on moral victories.””

Defensive woes – which have plagued Arizona for much of the season – continued to be a problem for the Wildcats on Friday. Arizona committed four errors on the night, while UCLA had three.

Junior Brad Mills (3-3) took the loss for Arizona. The lefty gave up seven runs – only four of which were earned – over 4 2/3 innings.

Bruins junior lefty Dave Huff threw a complete game to get the victory, allowing eight runs, six earned, while striking out 11.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-4 lead after a four-run third inning, but Huff didn’t allow another hit until the eighth inning, by which time the Bruins had scored nine unanswered runs to take a commanding 13-6 lead.

“”We’re a little out of sync right now,”” senior second baseman Brad Boyer said. “”The solution would be to come out and jump on a team early and get our bats going with some high-energy offense.””