Freshman pitcher Jayson Rose had his best performance of the season in his Sunday start against Cal, who is one of the best offensive teams in the Pac-12.
Rose’s 11 strikeouts were a part of a season-high 17 that Utah pitchers combined to throw, as senior Brock Duke contributed six strikeouts. Despite registering such a high number of strikeouts, Rose said that not all them went as planned.
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“I recall one lucky pitch,” he said. “But I think the other 10 I had control.”
Head coach Bill Kinneberg said he never would have thought the team would accumulate so many strikeouts and that it was a valiant effort by the freshman against a nationally-ranked Cal team.
Rose was just one of the few pitchers over the weekend who had success on the mound. Juniors Bret Helton and Dalton Carroll both struggled against the Golden Bears, and both games pitched by the duo ended with the Utes giving up 10 or more runs.
Helton, who had a strong start to his season, has struggled lately and has had two rough weekends in a row against Pac-12 opponents.
Carroll, who has been on a hot streak this month, struggled against the Golden Bears and gave up more hits against them than he has in his last three games started combined.
However, Rose isn’t bothered by seeing his upperclassmen teammates struggle.
“No, not really [getting nervous],” he said. “I mean it’s baseball — they are still going to hit the ball.”
Rose bounced back well after his last start against UCLA when he gave up six runs in 3.2 innings of work.
After setting the tone early in the Sunday game, Rose gave way to Duke to finish the game and keep the Golden Bears off the scoreboard. He did exactly that on his way to three shutout innings.
Duke has been a part of the team since 2010, but due to some injuries and setbacks he hasn’t pitched consistently since 2013.
He recorded his second save of the year on Sunday and earned high praise from his coach.
“That was [a] great [Sunday performance],” Kinneberg said. “Brock has been around a long time. He’s seen a lot of baseball. He’s confident out there. It was a perfect situation for him to be in … Both of them were outstanding and I loved both of their efforts.”
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