Mother Nature hasn’t allowed the Utes to play a Tuesday night game since March 26, as they have been rained or snowed out of their last two out-of-conference games in Utah. Today’s forecast doesn’t look much better, but Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said he is done predicting the weather.
Instead, Utah will focus on regaining momentum tonight in Orem after being swept by Oregon State during the weekend. The Utes will take on the Utah Valley Wolverines for the second time this season.
“Another Tuesday game that we’ll use to get guys more innings and work on our offense,” Kinneberg said of his goal for tonight. “Getting Trey [Nielsen] some innings on the mound is important.”
Nielsen will be making his second start as a pitcher tonight as Kinneberg looks to work him into a more consistent starting role Tuesday night. He was slated to start in each of the last two Tuesday night games that were canceled. Nielsen comes into the contest with only four and two-thirds innings of work so far.
In the small amount of action Nielsen has seen on the mound, he’s been productive. He has a 0.00 ERA with only four hits allowed and five strikeouts. Another solid performance from him would be one piece of the puzzle that could help Utah swing its momentum toward the win column.
The other is hitting. After dropping three straight games to OSU last weekend, the Utes will focus on getting the bat on the ball. They were shut out on just two hits in the series opener in Corvallis, Ore., and only managed to stretch across a total of four runs over the second and third games. Utah is 5-12 when it loses the hitting battle.
UVU split a four-game series with Houston Baptist University during the weekend. Adam Gunn will be firing the pitches for the Wolverines, which offers a promising outlook for the Utes’ lineup. Gunn has given up 48 hits in his nine starts and is 4-4 with a 4.41 ERA.
While Gunn has been mediocre throughout the season, he has been lethal from the hill lately. He got the job done versus Houston Baptist — notching the series opening win for UVU. That performance earned him The Great West Conference Player of the Week.
In the teams’ last meeting, Utah claimed an 11-inning win. T.J. Bennett knocked in the game-winning run after Tyler Relf’s one-out triple. In the rivalry series, the Utes always expect a hard-fought battle from their in-state adversary.
“Its always like that when we play them,” Kinneberg said. “Hopefully we can get things back on track.”
Barring another Tuesday night storm, the game will start at 6 p.m. in Orem.