May 5, 2008

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The University of Utah baseball team (16-24 overall, 5-12 Mountain West) enters the week with five games on its docket. The Utes return to the diamond for a Tuesday match-up against Southern Utah. First pitch at Ute Field on the Utah campus is set for 3 p.m. The Utes return to the road this weekend for their final regular season road trip when they play at the Air Force Academy on May 9-11. Utah and USAFA will play one game this Friday, a twin bill on Saturday and a single on Sunday. The second game on Saturday is to make up a game that got rained out in Salt Lake City back on March 30.

The Utes enter action this week having lost four of their last six games. The last time Utah was in the win column, it topped UNLV, 9-4, back on April 27. First up this week is Southern Utah. The Utes are a perfect 4-0 against the T-Birds this year. They topped SUU, 9-6, when the two last met on April 26. Utah went 2-0 against Air Force when the two tangled back in March. The Utes tallied 6-0 and 19-0 wins over the Falcons.

Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On Southern Utah and Air Force This Week: It's important that this team rebounds and plays well against Southern Utah on Tuesday. The Air Force Academy will not be an easy team to play on their field. We need to be ready when we go down there so that we can play to our potential.

On the TCU Series Last Weekend: It was disappointing to go down to TCU and get swept last weekend. We played well in some spots, and I would have liked to come away with some wins.

On Cody Guymon and Michael Beltran: Cody Guymon has swung the bat very well the last couple of weeks. He's definitely been a bright spot on offense for us lately. I've also been happy with Michael Beltran's defense as of late. He was a solid defensive player at shortstop for us last week.

Scouting Southern Utah
Tuesday will be the fifth of six meetings this season between these two in-state rivals. Utah has won the previous four meetings. The last time these two opponents locked horns was back on April 26. Utah bested the Thunderbirds, 9-6, here in Salt Lake City. SUU enters action this week with an 23-22 overall mark. It is third in the newly-renamed Summit League with a 10-9 conference tally. The team is hitting .300 this season with seven batters hitting better than .303 this season. The team is led by Keli'i Zablan and his .373 average. Joes Wright, a .304 hitter, leads the team with six homers and 38 RBI. SUU's earned-run average sits at 6.20. Mac Nelson has the best ERA on the staff, checking in at 3.41 in 34.1 innings pitched. Jacob Noyes is second with a 5.04 ERA in 44.2 innings of work. Dustin Wittwer is the staff work horse. He's got a 5.52 ERA in 73.1 innings pitched. David Eldredge is in his fourth season at the helm of SUU.

Scouting Air Force
The Air Force series is going to have a big impact on the standings. With only six teams going to the Mountain West Conference Tournament, the winner of this four-game set is in stellar position to advance into the post season. Air Force has been on a tear the last two weeks. The Falcons took two-out-of-three from BYU two weeks ago, and they played San Diego State in three tight games last week. SDSU did complete the series sweep of AFA. AFA enters the week with a 16-28 overall mark and a 2-15 MWC tally. It is currently in seventh place. These two tangled back on April 29 and 30, with Utah grabbing a pair of shutout wins, 6-0 and 19-0, respectively. AFA is hitting .271 on the season with three .300-plus batters on the roster. The Falcons are led by the bat of Matt Alexander. He's hitting a team-best .324 this season. He also paces the team with seven homers and 40 RBI. The team's earned-run average checks in at 8.54, and Jake Petro is the team's top hurler. He owns a 6.83 ERA. However, Alex Truesdale is the team's most prolific thrower. In a team-best 81.2 innings pitched, Truesdale has a 7.38 ERA. That's second on the team. Mike Hutcheon is the head coach, and he is in his fifth season in the dugout.

Last Week - The Utes dropped all three games to league rival TCU last weekend. They lost the first game, 5-2, the second, 6-3 and the last, 6-4.

Dustin Hennis helped Utah jump out to 1-0 lead on TCU in game one, thanks to his RBI single in the top of the first. But, TCU scored four unanswered runs to take the lead. The Utes doubled their run total on Cody Guymon's solo homer in the eighth, but TCU responded with an RBI double in the bottom of the frame. Hits were tied, 7-7, as Guymon was the lone Ute with multiple hits that day (3-for-4 with one RBI). Stephen Fife got the start on the mound and took the loss.

Utah spotted the Horned Frogs a six-run lead in game two. The Utes didn't respond until the fourth inning when Guymon's homer trimmed the home team's lead to 6-1. Guymon's RBI single in the seventh made it 6-2, and Utah added to its total in the eighth on Devin Walker's pinch-hit sac fly. TCU held the 8-7 edge in hits as Guymon led the team again in going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Brian Budrow got the nod on the hill and took the loss for the Utes.

The visitors jumped out to a 3-0 lead on TCU in game three. However, the Horned Frogs used a three-run seventh to rally for the 6-4 win. Nick Kuroczko and Guymon had RBI singles in the second, and Michael Beltran tallied one in the third. Hoewever, TCU plated the next six runs, including three in the seventh. The Utes tried to rally in the ninth when Corey Shimada hit a solo homer, but it came up short in the two-run loss. The Utes owned the 13-9 favor in hits. Six Utah players had a multi-hit day, led by the 3-for-4, one-RBI effort of Guymon. John James was the starting pitcher and tallied the loss for Utah.

Team Notes -
The Go-To "GUY-mon" - Cody Guymon has been Utah's most productive hitter over the last two weeks of conference play. Last weekend against TCU, he led the team with a .692 (9-for-13) batting average and posted a gawdy 1.231 slugging percentage. He tapped the Horned Frogs for a team-best nine hits, one double and two homers. He also accounted for four of the team's nine RBI. When looking back at the last two weeks, Guymon has hit .500. His efforts against UNLV and TCU have helped his batting average jump 21 points during that span. He entered the UNLV series hitting .345 (fourth on the team) and he's now hitting a team-best .366 on the year.

A Complete 180 - Before Mountain West Conference play started on March 20, hard-throwing righty Stephen Fife was just 2-1 with a mediocre 6.05 earned-run average. But, since the first conference game against San Diego State in mid-March, Fife is 3-3 with an impressive 2.42 ERA. Prior to MWC play, Fife made four appearances and averaged 3.5 strikeouts per game. Since league play began, he's made seven appearances and he's averaged 6.1 K's per game. For the year, Fife is 5-4 with a team-leading 3.41 ERA. He is tops on the team in innings pitched (71.1) and he's second on the squad with 57 K's.

Playing With Your Back Against the Wall - Last weekend, the Utes plated nine RBI. Five of those runs batted in came with two outs on the board. More impressive, though, is the fact that Utah hit .357 with two outs on the board. That's 100 points better than its .257 overall batting average last week. Cody Guymon led the team in two-out situatons last week in going 3-for-3 with two RBI. For the year, 90 of Utah's 240 RBI (38 percent) have been with two outs. However, for the season, Utah's batting average drops from .310 to .297 with two outs. Guymon's 15 two-out RBI leads the team on the year while Corey Shimada's .385 (15-for-39) two-out batting average is tops on the squad.

Be Like Mike! - Freshman Michael Beltran has been posting impressive numbers in his first season of collegiate ball. The rookie shortstop is hitting .350 (50-for-143) for the season, and that number bumps up to .359 (23-for-64) in league-only games. His overall season average leads all freshman hitters in the MWC, and it ranks 10th in the league. That's not too bad considering he was a meager 1-for-11 (.091) in his first-ever weekend of collegiate ball.

Big Hitters - The Utes are one of the best-hitting teams in the conference. They're second in batting average (.310) and third in slugging (.457) and on-base (.384) percentages. Those numbers get a boost from their seven .300-plus hitters this season. In fact, Utah is only one of two schools in the Mountain West Conference with seven .300 hitters in its lineup. UNLV is the other MWC school with seven .300 hitters. Utah's top hitters are: Cody Guymon (.366), first on the team, fourth in the league; Michael Beltran (.350); Corey Shimada (.344); Austin Jones (.329); Jesse Shriner (.325); Cooper Blanc (.319); and Dustin Hennis (.316).

Extra! Extra! - Of the 437 hits this year, 132 (30 percent) have gone for extra bases. Utah has hammered out 88 doubles, 12 triples and 32 homers. Those numbers rank sixth, sixth and fifth in the league, respectively. Utah boasts three players with 10 or more doubles. Leading the team in doubles is Jesse Shriner (15), triples is Corey Shimada (7) and homers is Cooper Blanc and Shimada (both with 6). Those rank fifth, first and eighth in the MWC, respectively. Speaking of extra-base hits, Utah's 88 doubles in 40 games is approaching last year's 55-game total (103). Utah's averaging 2.2 doubles per game, and, at that rate, would finish with 108 The school record for doubles in a season is 155 (1997).

Arms Race - Hurlers Stephen Fife and Brian Budrow are the work horses of the team this year. Fife has thrown 71.1 innings of ball while Budrow has tossed 65.0 innings. Together, they have thrown for 136.1 innings (or 40 percent of the innings played), tallied 118 K's (or 46 percent of the team's strikeouts) and have nine of the team's 16 wins (56 percent). Budrow averages 5.9 innings per start while Fife averages 7.1. Fife leads the team with a 3.41 earned-run average while Budrow owns a 3.60 ERA.

Triple Threat - Utah only has 12 triples this season, ranking sixth in the league. But, the team boasts one of the top hitters in that category. Corey Shimada has seven of the team's 12 triples, ranking first in the league. Through April 27, Shimada ranked third in the nation in triples. Last year, he was third in the nation with 10 triples. For his career, Shimada has a school-record 18 triples. He broke the career record with a triple at San Diego State on April 11.

Balls and Strikes - Utah has held 16 opponents to five runs or less. It is 11-5 in those games. However, the team is 5-19 when allowing six or more runs ... Utah has thrown four shutouts this season. That is the most in a season since Utah blanked three rivals in 1993 ... Brian Budrow (March 13 vs. Indiana) and Stephen Fife (April 25 vs. UNLV) tied the school's single-game record with 12 K's ... opponents hit .295 against Utah, but that average sinks to .269 with two outs. Stephen Fife leads the starters in holding opponents to just .227 hitting when there are two outs. Stephen Streich is the top reliever in the category (.205) ... the team has six saves on the season, and closer Robert Chimpky has four of them. His four saves are tied for third in the league.

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 117-141 all-time at Utah and he owns a 362-324 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 - After hosting the final non-conference game of the year against Southern Utah on May 13, the Utes end the regular season by hosting BYU, May 15-17, at Franklin Covey Field. The regular season-ending series has added significance as the winner of the three-game set this year will take home the coveted Deseret Duel trophy. Currently BYU leads the dual, 31-28.5, and each baseball game is worth 1.5 points.