Utah’s only scheduled contest against Utah State University has already been canceled once. This could happen again today, as storms are in the forecast for Logan.
If the game is playable, Utah (18-23-1) will face the Aggies (8-33) at 1:30 p.m.
Utah head coach Amy Hogue hopes the game will be played, but she acknowledged her team’s lack of luck with weather conditions at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field.
“We don’t have good weather,” Hogue said. “We haven’t had a lot of success when there has been crummy weather up in Logan. We’re going to have to fight it. We’re going to have to flip a switch and find a way to gain the momentum [today].”
The main reason Hogue wants the team to play is because Utah desperately needs wins. If the season was over today, the Utes would not make the NCAA Tournament. The magic number for that is 27 wins, Hogue said. Utah needs to win nine of its final 13 games to reach that mark.
With series games remaining against Arizona State, Stanford and Washington, today’s contest against a struggling Utah State team is a must-win. Despite the difficult path the Utes have ahead, they are just taking it one game at a time. Outfielder Kate Dickman is confident Utah will beat the Aggies and then move on to the Sun Devils.
“We’re excited to get another win to get us pumped up for ASU, and we’re not looking past [the Aggies], but we are definitely going to go into it knowing and expecting to win,” she said.
Dickman has reason to be confident. Although her team lost its series versus Oregon State last weekend, she tied a single-game school record for RBIs on Saturday with seven.
Confidence is exactly what the Utes need. After losses, players and coaches have said the team needs to play looser and show more swagger because even against weaker teams, they have struggled. The team might not be worried about the Aggies posing much of a threat, but the same was said about Weber State University, which took one game away from the Utes at home.
That loss upset the whole team, but especially Hogue. She said no other team in the Pac-12 has lost more games to weak teams than the Utes. With just 13 games left, Hogue said it is now or never for Utah because if the team does not perform well today, it might be too late.
“Every game is important from here on out,” she said. “If we want a chance at postseason, we have to win more than we lose. We’ve got no choice than to come out and win that game [today], or else our season will essentially be over.”