The Utah baseball team’s record might not reflect it, but the Utes are happy with the offense that has been installed by their coaches.
Utah runs a high-pressure offense, which means the Utes are more worried about making contact and stealing bases than blasting home runs.
[ PITCHERS LEADING THE WAY FOR UTES BASEBALL ]
“I like the offense we’re running this year,” junior Cody Scaggari said. “It’s a little bit different then it’s been in the past. We kind of played gorilla ball in the past, just trying to hit it as far as you can and it hasn’t really worked.”
The Utes rely heavily on their defense and pitching staff to win games, but even with a solid start to the year from its pitchers, Utah is still struggling to post wins. The offense is the last piece of the puzzle and the Utes are working to get better swinging the bat.
Junior AJ Young said that he doesn’t mind that the team doesn’t account for a lot of home runs. He said that playing the way the Utes do will benefit the team because it forces the pressure to their opponent.
A high-pressure team’s goal is to avoid strikeouts, and put the ball in play to force quick reactions from the infield and outfield.
“You can run into outs,” Young said. “Things don’t go your way. Pitch outs, a bad bunt, things like that if you’re not executing, things could go bad.”
Looking at the team’s record, some may question why Utah is keeping up with the type of offense it’s running, but the players are confident the offense will work with time.
Senior Biss Larsen said there used to be a time in college baseball when teams were hitting for the fences more but rules and regulations on bats have changed things.
“They put these regulations on the bats where the power of college baseball kind of went away,” he said. “At least to me, I think it is kind of flashy and exciting because you’re stealing base and you’re taking stuff when people aren’t really used to it.”
The key to working with a high-pressure offense is to be aggressive as much as you can. The system allows the team to do more not only at the plate but on the bases as well, allowing more action to take place and creating more things for the defense to worry about.
“We all fail,” he said. “Baseball is a game of failure. In a high-pressure offense, you’re doing a lot of things, putting yourself on line. You could possibly fail more…We just need to learn how to execute a little bit better and we’re learning and stuff. We’ll get there eventually.”
Scaggari said the team would rather hit high drives throughout the field and that it happens so much more often than hitting giant home runs.
“When we hit home runs, it’s something to celebrate,” he said. “But it’s considered a miss in our book.”
@ISmithAtTheU