The worlds of professional and collegiate baseball will collide tonight in an exhibition matchup at Spring Mobile Ballpark. The Salt Lake Bees will host the Utes in the stadium they both call home.
“We’re going to play everybody that’s healthy, and guys are going to get at-bats,” said Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg. “We’re treating this as a true exhibition game.”
This will be the first game for the Bees, while the Utes are well into their season. Utah will have a chance to test its skills against the next level of competition, but in the end, it won’t matter who wins or loses.
“Tomorrow’s a fun night for us,” Kinneberg said Monday. “It’s relaxed. There’s no pressure.”
A fun, relaxed night could be just what the Utes need to regain some of the momentum they had built before facing Arizona last weekend. Utah was on a three-game winning streak before the defending NCAA champion Wildcats won all three games.
One area Kinneberg is eager to see improvement from tonight is the pitching staff. Trey Nielsen will get the start as work begins to increase his longevity on the mound. Kinneberg hopes this will relieve some of the pressure on the bullpen.
“We’re going to start stretching [Nielsen] out so that he can throw five or six innings on Tuesdays,” Kinnberg said.
In last Tuesday’s extra-inning thriller against BYU, the Utes were forced to use more of their bullpen than they would have liked. Afterward, Kinneberg said he hoped Mitch Watrous would be able to get them deep into the first game against Arizona, but he was only able to pitch 4.2 innings before Luke West took over.
Despite going to the bullpen early Thursday, Utah was in a position to tie the game in the ninth with a runner in scoring position. However, the Utes were unable to convert and fell 4-3.
The Wildcats took advantage of Utah’s depleted pitching staff in a big way Friday as they mounted a 15-4 victory to claim the second game of the series.
“It got us on Friday without having a full bullpen,” Kinneberg said. “Using Luke [West] and [Nick] Green on Thursday kind of hurt us because [Chase] Rezac and Trey [Nielsen] weren’t available as well. The good thing about it was that some people got their feet wet, and they’ll be a little bit better the next time.”
Dalton Carroll got the start for Utah in the series finale Saturday and did exactly what his team needed him to do. He kept the Wildcats off the board for six innings before giving up his first and only run in the seventh.
“It’s really a hitter’s ballpark,” Kinneberg said of Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Ariz. “Dalton was spectacular on Saturday.”
Even after his notable performance, Carroll still came away with the loss as the Utes weren’t able to muster enough offense after Arizona scored an additional run in the eighth inning to go ahead 2-0. Utah threatened to make a comeback, stretching across a run in the ninth, but couldn’t keep the rally going and dropped the game 2-1.
Tickets to tonight’s game are $5 for adults and free for Utah students and children under 12. All proceeds will benefit Larry H. Miller charities and the Utes Baseball Scholarship Fund. Gates open at 5 p.m.