The grass is turning green, and the bats will soon start to swing.
Utah is set to hit the diamond this weekend to open up the 2014 season against Sacramento State. The Utes, who return 19 letter winners from last year’s team that went 21-31, are looking to achieve their ultimate goal of going to the College World Series in the summer.
“I think right now, we have one of the best teams in Utah history,” says junior pitcher Mitch Watrous. “The relationship that we have with each other is incredible. We’re all so close this year, and it’s only going to help us on the field.”
Sophomore infielder Dallas Carroll agrees.
“Our biggest motto is ‘we as a team,’” he says. “It’s not an individual game. Not one game is going to keep us down as well as one game is not going to keep us up.”
Utes’ head coach Bill Kinneberg stressed that the new year will bring positive changes. In 2013, Kinneberg regularly played seven freshmen. Those players have now had a year of experience and look to improve on all aspects of the game.
Kinneberg is also looking to improve as a coach while he works to incorporate new players.
“You go back and you reevaluate what you did coaching wise,” Kinneberg says. “You reevaluate how you set up practices and so forth. It’s a new group. We’ve got a lot of veteran guys back, but we’ve got 10 new guys on the team. It’s a new year. You take the things you need to improve on and try to do that.”
Since Salt Lake City is still experiencing cold temperatures, the team has been forced to train primarily indoors, although coaches and players have taken some trips to St. George where they have practiced outside.
“That’s really good for us to get dirty and get on grass and be outside and to be able to play full scrimmages,” Kinneberg says. “It’s been invaluable to us. Hopefully that’ll put us ahead a little bit of some cold weather schools.”
The players know the importance of staying focused during the long season. Watrous stresses that his team needs to keep that competitive fire and focus to get the team where it wants to be.
“Sometimes we get a little off-topic during practice,” he says. “We need to keep that momentum in practice and transfer it to the games.”
As with any team, Kinneberg says his squad has the tools to be successful as long as players stay healthy.
“No. 1 is staying away from as many injuries as you can,” he says. “Injuries are going to happen in the game of baseball. We’re going to get hit, we’re going to slide. We are going to do some things that cause injuries.”
Utah will begin the season this afternoon with the first of four games against Sacramento State this weekend in California. The contest is scheduled to start 3 p.m. MT.