Before the opening homestand of the season for the U baseball team, the only question about the team?other than if snow would prevent it from playing?was whether or not the bats would be alive throughout the series.
The question was answered with a big bang, as the Utes torched the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in a Sunday doubleheader, winning by scores of 16-7 and 22-1, respectively.
Southern Utah lived up to its 1-19 record, as it was crushed by Utah in every facet of the game.
After the teams originally sought to play a tripleheader, with one game on Friday and two more on Saturday, the series was delayed due to heavy amounts of rain and snow, and the Sunday double dip was all they could squeeze in.
The weather not only affected the time when the games were played, but also the place; instead of playing at Franklin Covey Field, the U’s usual home field, the games needed to be shifted to UVSC’s baseball field.
The first game was closer than the score indicated, as the Thunderbirds were up 7-2 after the third inning.
U pitcher Jason Wylie was pulled from the game, Ryan Reisbeck came in for relief, and the offense came around to help.
Things started getting ugly, as the Utes scored 4 runs in the fourth inning, as Donald Hawes, Adam Castleton and Brett Baldwin were able to hit RBI singles.
To cap off the inning, Nate Weese hit a solo shot, which brought the Utes back to within one.
Utah finally took the lead in the fifth, when Hawes delivered a two-run shot.
The Utes put the nail in the coffin in the eighth inning, when 7 hits were delivered for 7 runs. Adam Castleton hit a two-run shot, and Mike Westfall hit a three-run shot, which put the game away for the Utes.
Reisbeck picked up the win in his 6 innings of shutout pitching.
The second game of the doubleheader featured an almost flawless performance by the Utes.
Four Utes had 3 RBI or more in the 22-1 blowout. The Utes scored the 22 runs off of 24 hits.
They scored 5 runs through the first and second innings. The real problems started for Southern Utah, though, when the Utes blew the game open in the third and fourth innings, as they scored 6 runs in each of those.
Mike Basham went a perfect 6-for-6 in that contest and scored 4 runs and knocked in 4 RBI to complement the effort.
Cheyenne Rushton had completely demolished Southern Utah the last time he pitched against them, and this time was not any different.
Rushton put in 5 innings of work and only allowed 1 run. He also notched 8 strikeouts and is now 3-0 on the year.
The Utes have now pulled their record up to 12-8, and have won four straight games. This is also now the fifth straight series the Utes have won the majority of the games in.
Utah will open the conference season next weekend, as it travels to Albuquerque, N.M., to take on the New Mexico Lobos in a three-game series starting Friday, March 15.