April 14, 2008

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The University of Utah baseball team (13-17 overall, 3-5 Mountain West) will play four games this week. The Utes will host Utah Valley on Tuesday at Ute Field. It will mark the last of six meetings between these two in-state rivals this season. Utah will return to conference play this weekend when it plays New Mexico at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, N.M., Friday through Sunday.

The Utes will look to break a three-game losing streak when they host their first game on campus this season, playing Utah Valley at Ute Field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. This will be the sixth and final meeting between these two rivals this season. Utah won the last meeting in Orem, 17-16, on April 5. The last Wolverine victory in the series was April 4. UVU won, 4-2, at Franklin Covey Field.

Utah returns to conference play this weekend when it travels to New Mexico to play the second-place Lobos. The first game of the series is on Friday at 6 p.m. First pitch for the Saturday and Sunday tilts is set for noon.

Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On this week's games against Utah Valley/New Mexico: Tuesday is going to be a big game. We need go out there and bounce back from last weekend. It's a home game for us, so it's important that we go out there and play well against Utah Valley.

Going to New Mexico this weekend is going to be a tough test. The Lobos are on a roll. They're second in the league right now, on the heels of San Diego State, and they are playing good ball. We need to go down there better prepared to play than we were last weekend.

On last week versus BYU/San Diego State: San Diego State is the top team in our league. We went down there, played two tight games against them, and even had the chance to win. But, this team has to learn to make plays, make pitches, and to take advantage of offensive opportunities at key points in the game.

Scouting Utah Valley
The Utes and Wolverines will tangle for the sixth and final time this season on Tuesday. Utah holds the 3-2 edge in the season series. Last time these two met, Utah tallied the 17-16 win in Orem back on April 5. The last Utah Valley win in the series was on April 4. The Wolverines won a 4-2 decision at Franklin Covey Field. UVU enters this week's contest with a 7-24-1 overall mark. It has lost four in a row and six of its last seven games. The team is hitting .251 for the season, and it has only one hitter batting better than .300. Jace Brinkerhoff, a Ping! Freshman All-American last year, is hitting a team-best .343. He also leads the team with 15 doubles, four homers and 26 RBI. The team earned-run average is at 6.01. UVU returns 16 letterwinners, four starters and seven pitchers from its 2007 team that went 25-30 The top hurler on the team is ace Marcus Moore. Moore is 4-5 with a 3.31 ERA.

Scouting New Mexico
The Lobos enter the week on a four-game winning streak. They are 24-12 overall, and they own the league's second-best mark at 8-4. Last week, they swept Air Force for three conference wins. UNM will host a Arizona in a two-game series prior to play this weekend. The team is hitting .321 this season, making it the top-hitting team in the league. The Lobos have six hitters batting .330 or better, led by Matt Hibbitts. He is hitting a team-best .369 which ranks third in the conference. Brian Cavazos-Galvez is right behind Hibbitts, hitting .362 this season. The team earned-run average is 5.16 which ranks third in the conference. Clinton Cox is the team's top hurler, checking in with a 3.65 ERA. John Hesketh is second on the team with an ERA of 3.67. The Lobos return 19 letterwinners, seven starters and seven pitchers from the 2007 team that went 28-30, 12-12 in conference. UNM is led by first-year head coach Ray Birmingham.

Last Week - The Utes went 1-3 last week. They started the week off by topping BYU, 9-7, in a non-conference contest. However, San Diego State dealt Utah three straight losses last weekend. The Aztecs clipped Utah, 1-0, 9-2 and 6-2.

After spotting BYU a 3-0 lead, Utah plated nine straight runs to topple the Cougars in a non-conference tilt last Tuesday. An Austin Jones two-RBI single in the top seventh vaulted the Utes to victory, scoring the eventual game-winning and insurance runs. Andrew Wilding got the start on the mound but it was John James who was the pitcher of record. He improved to 2-3 on the year. Utah out-hit BYU, 14-11, as Jones' 4-for-5, four RBI effort led Utah's offensive charge.

Utah couldn't overcome Aztec hurler Stephen Strasburg as SDSU held Utah at bay for the 1-0, one-hit victory. Strasburg struck out 23 of the 30 batters he faced, and he one-hit Utah in netting the complete-game victory. Michael Beltran was the lone Ute with a hit, breaking up the no-hitter in the sixth with a single up the middle. A fielding error with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh led to SDSU's only run. Ute hurler Brian Budrow (4-3) took the loss.

SDSU jumped out to insurmountable leads in the final two games of the three-game series with Utah. In game three, the Aztecs out-hit Utah, 12-9, and they built a 9-0 lead before Utah responded with two runs in the top of the ninth. Nick Kuroczko had an RBI grounder and Corey Shimada had an RBI triple in an attempt to counter SDSU's nine-run output. Stephen Fife got the loss in game two, falling to 4-3 on the year.

The Aztecs went up 4-0 before Utah answered with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. A DC Legg single with two on led to Utah's first run, scoring Beltran from third. Shimada put down a sacrifice bunt to move runners into scoring position, and then Tyler Relf would score on a balk by SDSU pitcher Shane Kaufman. However, the Aztecs preserved the four-run cushion by scoring another two runs in the bottom of the eighth. SDSU held the 10-7 edge in hits as Ute pitcher James took the loss, falling to 2-4 on the year.

Team Notes -
Change of Venue - The Utah-UNLV series on April 25-27 has been moved from Franklin Covey Field to Lindquist Field in Ogden, Utah. The games were originally going to be played in Salt Lake City but the series had to be moved to Ogden due to a conflict with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. Game times are at 6 p.m., on April 25-26, and 1 p.m. on April 27. Lindquist Field opened in 1997, and it seats 5,000. Lindquist Field is the home of the Ogden Raptors of the Single-A Pioneer League.

Be Like Mike! - Freshman Michael Beltran has been posting impressive numbers in his first season of collegiate ball. Since conference play began, the shortstop has been Utah's top hitter, smacking the ball around the park at a .467 (14-for-30) clip. He also has 15 RBI and owns an on-base and slugging percentage of .500. Beltran still leads all Mountain West Conference freshmen in hitting. For the year, he is hitting .368 (39-for-106) ranking second on the team and fourth in the conference. That's not too bad considering the rookie was 1-for-11 (.091) in his first weekend of collegiate ball.

Three's Company - Utah is tied for fifth in the league with nine triples this season. But, the Utes boast the top hitter in the conference in that category. Corey Shimada has belted out five of the team's nine triples this year. His five three-sackers are tied for first in the league. Last year, Shimada was third in the nation in triples per game. Going into action last week, he was ranked 19th in country in that category.

Extra! Extra! - Of the 335 hits this year, 97 (29 percent) have gone for extra bases. Utah has hammered out 67 doubles, nine triples and 21 homers. Those numbers rank fourth, sixth and third in the league, respectively. Leading Utah in doubles are Jesse Shriner and Cody Guymon (11), triples is Corey Shimada (5) and homers is Cooper Blanc with six. Those rank third, first and fifth in the MWC, respectively. Speaking of extra-base hits, Utah's 67 doubles in 30 games is more than half of last year's 55-game total (103). Utah's averaging 2.2 doubles per game, and, at that rate, would finish with 111. The school record for doubles in a season is 155 (1997).

Hitting on All Cylinders - The Utes have had double-digit hits in 17 games this season, and 10 of the team's 12 wins this season have come in those outings. Utah is 10-6 in those games. Utah has won the last seven games in which it has had 10 or more hits. Last week, the team had 14 hits in the 9-7 win over BYU. It had a season-high 22 against Air Force on March 29, and 19 versus Southern Utah on March 8.

Pitching Notebook - Utah's earned-run average for the season is at 5.29. But that average improves to 3.91 against Mountain West Conference rivals ... Stephen Fife has a 3.54 ERA for the season, but it sinks to 2.05 in MWC-only games ... Brian Budrow is the team's strikeout leader with 48 this season. He is third in the conference ... Robert Chimpky is Utah's closer, tallying a team-best three saves. His three saves are fourth in the conference.

Balls and Strikes - The team has lost only two games to weather this year. One of the two (the March 30 rain out against Air Force) will be made up ... Utah has held 11 opponents to five runs or less. It is 9-2 in those games. Utah has had four shutouts this season. The team is 3-15 when allowing six or more runs ... nine of the 13 victories this season have been day games ... the team's average for the season is .317. It bumps up to .344 with runners on, and to .400 with the bases loaded. Michael Beltran is the best hitter with runners on (.397) while Austin Jones is a team-best 4-for-5 (.800) with the bases juiced ... 66 of the team's 189 (35 percent) RBI have come with two outs. Last weekend, six of the team's 11 RBI (55 percent) came with two outs on the board. Cooper Blanc's 12 two-out RBI lead the team on the year ... opponents hit .295 against Utah, but that average sinks to .265 with two outs. Stephen Fife holds opponents to just .182 hitting when there are two outs.

At the Helm - Head coach Bill Kinneberg is in his fourth consecutive season as Utah's mentor and his fifth overall season as the Ute head coach. He was on the Utah bench for the 1996 season and returned to The U. in 2004. He is 114-134 all-time at Utah and he owns a 359-317 career record in 12 years. Prior to Utah, Kinneberg was a head coach at both UTEP and Wyoming, and he was also a pitching coach in the White Sox minor league organization. Bill Kinneberg is assisted by Bryan Conger, Bryan Kinneberg and Nate Schlieman.

Up Next - Utah returns home to host four games next week. The Utes will host Southern Utah on April 22, and then they welcome UNLV to Utah for a three-game conference series. Those three games will be played at Lindquist Field in Ogden, Utah.