As he prepares to leave on a road trip to face No. 6 Oregon State (25-6, 7-2 Pac-12), Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg has every reason to be concerned with who the Utes will be facing on the mound this weekend, as the Beavers’ pitching has been chewing through Pac-12 opponents.
“The first thing you look at is their pitching staff with a team ERA under two,” Kinnberg said. “I have not seen that in college baseball … in my 30 years.”
Not only will the Utes be staring down the barrel of some of the conference’s best guns on the mound, but they’ll also have to deal with an extraordinary batting lineup.
“They’ve got really good hitters,” Kinneberg said. “Michael Conforto — in my opinion — is the best hitter in the country.”
In their 2012 series, Conforto homered three times at Spring Mobile Ballpark. The Beavers took the series after all was said and done, but Utah made them earn it. They went toe-to-toe with OSU in a 10-inning affair but eventually dropped the contest 5-4.
Even with OSU’s prowess this season, Utah hopes to translate last season’s close contests to wins this time. Despite not knowing who OSU is putting on the mound, Utah’s rotation is set. Mitch Watrous will get things going today, followed by Dalton Carroll on Saturday.
Utah claimed victory on both of their starts last weekend against Washington State. After missing three weeks of play because of a broken middle finger, Tanner Banks will make his return Sunday.
“I’m really happy to have [Banks] back,” Kinneberg said. “We’re extremely excited to get him built up. He’ll have limited innings this weekend, but I’m looking forward to seeing him back out on the field.”
With Banks back in the rotation, Joe Pond will move to the bullpen to help beef up the relief corps.
“We have guys coming out of the pen that could be starters,” Banks said. “We know they’re going to be able to come in and get the job done.”
Before this weekend’s pitching rotation was set, Banks was scheduled to make his comeback versus BYU last Tuesday. However, the game was canceled, and Banks was able to get a little more work in to prepare for the Beavers.
“I was definitely anxious,” Banks said about the possibility of starting versus BYU. “How’s my finger going to feel? Am I going to be able to go out and throw strikes? Then we did a live hitting practice. It was good … It wasn’t as much pressure as pitching against BYU would’ve been.”
The Utes have a tough road ahead of them, but if this weekend is any reflection of recent challenges, they shouldn’t be intimidated. They were able to claim a road series against then-No. 17 Stanford three weeks ago as the underdogs. Banks doesn’t seem to be shaken by the challenge.
“I think if we go in and trust our approach, we’ll get it done,” Banks said.
The three-game series begins tonight at 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast via streaming video on the Pac-12 website.