The blustery weather has yet again tainted the Utah baseball team’s home schedule.
For the third time in the past four days, Utah will have to reschedule because of inclement weather conditions. The Utes were slated to play Utah Valley University tonight, but will have to find another day to do so.
It’s typical for bad weather to interfere with the baseball team’s schedule in the early part of the season and it’s the reason Utah schedules the majority of its games on the road this time of year.
Although it might seem nice to get some home games early in the season, it’s always a better idea to schedule more games on the road.
“I like traveling,” said Utes pitcher Brian Budrow. “I wouldn’t mind. The only drawback is keeping up with school, but I wouldn’t mind traveling some more till it finally clears up.”
Head coach Bill Kinneberg said his team doesn’t plan on scheduling more road games because he would rather have more home games this time of year. In the five years he has coached the Utes, the weather hasn’t really been a factor and there haven’t been more than a couple of games postponed because of weather, he said.
“It’s kind of unusual,” Kinneberg said. “We’ve hit it at the right times, but it just happened to hit us at the wrong time this week.”
Out of the 26 non-conference games the Utes play, 18 are played on the road.
Of the eight non-conference home games, five are played at the end of April. It’s not a new thing for this team to schedule around the weather, and it tries to fix this by mixing in non-conference games during their Mountain West Conference play.
Typically, Utah will schedule these games during the middle of the week and it usually poses a problem during conference play.
“It’s a little tougher when you’re playing in between conference and your focus is on conference games,” Kinneberg said. “But in the game of baseball, you play four or five games a week and if these guys ever want to go on and play professional baseball, it’s much tougher than that.”
So far this season, Utah has been able to play two non-conference home games8212;a doubleheader during the weekend against Southern Utah University. It’s not always easy for student athletes to play on the road that much, especially when it’s conflicting with school.
Another big issue with postponing games and hitting the road is the importance of playing non-conference games. This is the time in the season where Utah will find out which of its starters will start and taking multiple days off hurts this process.
“It’s nice to get the guys working in the bullpen, get the other pitchers to work for the weekend, kind of who can get a feel for finishing games,” Budrow said.
Luckily for Utah, players have stepped up in the young season.
Greg Krause is beginning to come into form as the Utes closer, a position that has had problems this year. On the trip to Gonzaga, some of the younger players, such as freshman outfielder Tyler Yagi and freshman pitcher Joe Pond, were able to get some starts. Non-conference games play a big role in setting up teams for conference play, where the games mean a lot more.
“You play them, and hopefully guys develop and you get better after these games,” Kinneberg said. “That’s what they’re all about.”
Shimada named MWC Player of the Week
Utah second baseman Corey Shimada was named the MWC Player of the Week Monday afternoon.
Shimada was vital during a stretch in which Utah went 3-1 and he hit .533 from the plate, with eight RBIs in 15 plate appearances. In game one of the two-game series against Gonzaga last week, Shimada went 3-for-5 from the plate with three RBIs en route to the Utes’ 16-9 victory.
In Utah’s 11-3 win over Southern Utah, he recorded another three-hit three-RBI game.
His biggest hit of the four-game stretch came during the second game of a double header against SUU. With two men on base, Shimada belted a two-run single in the second inning, giving the Utes a 3-2 lead and ultimately the win.
He also got it done on defense, which the team has expected from him all season. At second base he had six putouts, 14 assists and no errors.
Shimada is hitting .322 on the season and is leading the team in stolen bases with eight on the season.
This is the first MWC Player of the Week honor for the senior captain from Murray.
Tyler CobbCorey Shimada and the Utes have dealt with bad wether in the team?s early part of the season, but recent storms that postponed the team?s game tonight aren?t the norm said head coach Bill Kinneburg.