February will be very telling for the U baseball team, which will match-up with four different teams during the month.
The Utes will face the Arizona Wildcats this weekend, Pacific next weekend, and then Mesa State and Southern Utah to finish off the month.
The team’s growth before the conference season is more vital than winning all these games, and finding out who will play what position?especially in the outfield and the starting rotation?will be the most important thing for coach Tim Esmay to decide over the next month.
Except for Game 1 of the season-opening Cal-Poly series, the Utes’ starting pitchers were shelled early and often, and the hitters could never keep up with the opposition.
Doug Mackay and Sean Overholt were slammed, but will need to recover and give the Utes quality innings in order for the team to compete for the Mountain West Conference Championship.
Closer Mitch Maio has not made the transition to a starting pitcher, but played very well in closing the game out in Game 1 against the Mustangs.
The shortstop situation is still up in the air, but Brett Baldwin played very well the first series.
Arizona will be a tough matchup for a team that is still trying to forge its identity, but Pacific will be a different matter.
The Tigers’ matchup with the Utes will be their first of the season since their season opening series with Bethany College was postponed due to a death in the head coach’s family.
Mesa State will open its home schedule against the Utes, and the Mavericks can hit the ball very well with plenty of seniors coming back to give the Utes a headache.
The pitching does not look to good for the Mavericks, and the U’s offensive tandem of Nate Weese and Mike Westfall should have a big series against Mesa State.
The final stop for the Utes will be against Southern Utah, which has average pitchers at best.
Utah should handle the T Birds quite easily and finish off the month of February with a good record, and put all the things in place ready to go for the conference season.