This will be the most critical weekend of the season for the U baseball team, as it will travel to face conference leader San Diego State. The Utes must do well in order to compete for the second-place spot in the MWC.
The Aztecs have been on fire, as they took four games from BYU last weekend to give themselves space in the conference race, and will look to bring out the brooms again against Utah.
San Diego State has a conference record of 13-3, while the Utes and Cougars are tied for the second spot with a league record of 9-9.
Utah has proven that it can play and win against San Diego State, as the Utes took two out of three games from the Aztecs earlier in the season.
SDSU has two of the three pitchers who have seven wins in the conference, in Rory Shortell and Chris Dunwell. The other pitcher with seven victories is Ute hurler Mitch Maio.
Dunwell was unsuccessful in his start against the Utes at Franklin Covey Field, as he pitched 6.1 innings and gave up 5 earned runs and got the loss, while Shortell pitched a complete game and only allowed one run in the win.
The final starter for the Aztecs will not be Mike Moat, who had a pitchers’ duel with Maio the last the time the Aztecs faced the Utes, but Joe Carque will get the start.
Moat has been shelled of late, and only got one out against New Mexico, as the Lobos put up 5 runs on the board before the Aztecs could blink.
Utah’s pitching staff has the talent to go toe-to-toe with the Aztec staff, but Jason Wylie and Cheyenne Rushton need to show a little more consistency in their starts.
Wylie picked up the win against San Diego State the last time the two teams met, while Rushton was shelled, partly due to defensive issues.
Maio has been the starter the team looks for on the hill, and will have to pull out a win in the third game of the series.
Coming out of this series being ahead or tied for second place with BYU will give the Utes an outstanding chance at heading into the conference tourney with the No. 2 seed.