As the season winds down, the pressure for wins has never been higher for the Utes and they face a big test this weekend.
Standing in their way is USC, a nationally-ranked squad that has been extremely successful this year but dropped its last series. Additionally, the Trojans dropped their midweek game in preparation for the Utes to Cal State Fullerton 5-3, and they are looking vulnerable heading into the weekend slate.
However, Utah (14-25) isn’t doing so well either, coming off a weekend where it dropped 2-of-3 games to Washington State. One of those games was the Friday night opener, where the Utes have been struggling to win contests this season.
“I don’t know if it’s any harder on Friday than it is on Saturday or Sunday,” said head coach Bill Kinneberg. “It just happens that we haven’t done it in a long time.”
Pitcher Nolan Stouder said he doesn’t think any of the pitchers are afraid of pitching on opening night — rather, they strive for the opportunity.
“I feel like when you want to play college baseball, that’s the whole goal as a pitcher is to pitch Friday nights,” Stouder said. “You’re definitely facing the other team’s ace, their best lineup and all they’ve got, usually. Friday is the must-win … in everyone’s eyes. That’s really the tone setter.”
According to junior Kody Davis, the opening game is always a grind, but the Utes are due for a Friday win very soon. Recovering from those Friday night losses has been a challenge for the team, so they frequently snowball into series losses.
“It’s been tough because you win that Friday night and you’ve got a lot of momentum going into Saturday and Sunday,” Davis said. “We have just been able to take the positives from our Friday nights. We have played well, we just haven’t really been rewarded with it.”
While the hope for a regional berth is no longer in sight for the Utes, they still haven’t lost hope that they can come out strong in the later stages of the season. Davis said that even though the team is an underdog going into this series with USC, Utah can help ruin the end of the season for the Trojans if the Utes perform a sweep.
“The thing I’m excited about is [that] we always come out ready to play when we’re playing those ranked teams,” Davis said. “It’s almost a different atmosphere when we show up to play those guys.”
While the team still desperately clings to the goal of getting to the postseason, the Utes know something special will have to happen in order to secure their place once the season concludes.
“We know that our chances at a regional are pretty slim, and we’d have to do pretty remarkable things right now,” Stouder said. “We’re going to give it all we got. I think everyone’s just focusing on one game at a time.”
First pitch is scheduled for 8 p.m. MT at Smith’s Ballpark on Friday.
@ISmithAtTheU