Spirits were low after Utah’s loss to Weber State University on Wednesday, but the Utes do not have time to dwell on the loss, as conference play continues. Utah (17-21-1, 3-9 Pac-12) will begin a three-game series against Oregon State (24-14, 1-8 Pac-12) today.
Utah’s season has been inconsistent up to this point. It has beaten top-shelf teams — only to have those wins coupled with embarrassing losses. One consistent member for the Utes has been second baseman Jackie Sweet, who is enjoying a 15-game hitting streak. She said the team needs to regain the “swagger” they had during a series win against UCLA.
“We just need to go back to being confident and playing like we did against UCLA, and I think we will,” Sweet said. “I don’t know why this happened, but we just need to come out strong and come out aggressive and just take it to [the Beavers].”
The Utah bats will need to be in full effect if the team hopes to beat Oregon State. In all of Utah’s conference wins, the team has scored more than five runs.
Head coach Amy Hogue said in the past, the importance of scoring runs in the Pac-12 has been high. To win conference games, the Utes will need to score multiple runs in two innings or score multiple runs in one inning and play perfect defense, Hogue said.
Oregon State has been struggling in its own right. The team has lost all but one game in the Pac-12. Despite having only won one game, the Beavers have played some of the best teams in the conference, including Arizona State, Washington and Stanford.
Utah is hoping to get two players back from injuries. Kayce Nieto, who has all of the team’s Pac-12 wins, has been fighting through a nagging injury. Also, during the weekend Kate Dickman took a ball to the head and was removed from the game.
If Dickman is unable to play, the Utes would be missing a .319 hitter who leads the Pac-12 in triples during conference play.
Even with these players out, Hogue said it was not an excuse to lose to WSU on Wednesday. She said the coaches can’t do much to help the players turn up the aggressiveness. The players need to decide how the rest of the season is going to go.
Hogue’s sentiment is a familiar one. After a tough loss against Utah Valley University, Hogue and the other coaches told the players the same thing. However, Hogue said UVU was a “legitimate” team, and losing to a 7-30 WSU team was unacceptable. Moving forward, the Utes will be seeking wins against far more talented squads.
“There are a lot of Pac-12 games left, and we’re going to have to find a way to recover and see if we can beat enough great teams that this [loss against Weber State] can disappear, but we definitely put a lot of work in front of us,” Hogue said.
The Utes and Beavers play today at 4 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and will finish Sunday at 1 p.m.