Utah baseball continues its version of March Madness as they travel to Tucson, Ariz., for another three-game series at Hi Corbett Field. They’ll face the defending NCAA Champions and head coach Bill Kinneberg’s alma mater Arizona this weekend.
The Pac-12 foes have been on opposite and surprising trajectories of late. Utah has won four out of their last five games, including a series win over in-conference opponents Stanford. On the other hand, Arizona is on a bit of a skid, losing six straight games against Oregon and Oregon State.
Despite their struggles, the Utes aren’t slighting the defending champs.
“[Arizona’s] Pac-12 record isn’t indicative of who they are and where they are going to be,” Kinneberg said. “They are a quality team. We will have to play well this weekend.”
Playing Tuesday night games versus in-state rivals over the past two weeks has built momentum for the team, but it has also taken a toll on the Utes’ pitching staff.
“I didn’t want to use this much pitching — I know that,” Kinneberg said after Utah’s win over BYU Tuesday. “I didn’t want to use Luke [West] tonight, and I didn’t want to use [Josh] Chapman. Hopefully Thursday night we get a great effort out of [Mitch] Watrous so that we can save our bullpen a little bit.”
With Brock Duke still out of the rotation, Utah plans to give Watrous the series opening nod once again. Dalton Carroll is currently slated to take the second start in the series. He’s been having success on the mound with a 2-1 record in three starts as a freshman. However, his twin brother has been gaining more attention as the Utes’ starting third baseman and red-hot offensive producer.
Dallas Carroll was named the Pac-12’s player of the week. It was the first time a Utah player has garnered the award since joining the conference.
“It was a great honor for him. He had a great weekend,” Kinneberg said. “I’m very proud of him. He’s still got a lot to learn, but he’s going to be a great player.”
Carroll deferred the credit to his teammates.
“I’m honored to win it. I like to view it as a team effort also,” Carroll said. “Without Braden [Anderson] or Kody [Davis] or anyone else getting on base, RBIs never would’ve come around. You can look at it just as me being player of the week, but without them doing their part I never would’ve got it.”
Carroll is confident he and his teammates can continue the offensive tear they’ve been on lately. Cory Hunt fed off the energy of Spring Mobile Ballpark in front of the U faithful on his way to a 4-4 performance in Tuesday night’s battle with BYU. He’s looking forward to facing their next PAC-12 competition.
“The defending champs at their place are never easy to play,” Hunt said. “We’ll just come out and play the best we can.”
The series begins tonight at 6 p.m.