After winning 12 straight games, Utah was bound to hit a bump in the road at some point. That bump came last weekend during the Hawaii Spring Fling in Honolulu. Utah’s streak started all the way back in its second tournament of the season, where they defeated Cal State Northridge 8-0 in five innings. That run continued until the Utes fell to East Carolina on Friday.
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During that span, the Utes held seven of their 12 opponents to one run or less. If that isn’t impressive enough, in 11 of those games, Utah held opposing teams to three runs or less. The only other game was a 10-7, eight-inning victory over Ohio State.
Despite the run being one of the best the Utes have seen in recent memory, they aren’t too happy about the loss.
“Our offense just didn’t produce hits that game, I can’t put it on anything specific,” said captain Kate Dickman. “That loss definitely stung a bit afterwards.”
Dickman’s 19-game hitting streak
The teams’ winning streak wasn’t the only streak that ended over the weekend, as captain Kate Dickman’s longest career hitting streak came to an end in the same contest.
The center fielder was on a 19-game hitting streak, which dated back to nearly the beginning of the season. She was hitting the ball very well during the streak, and even though it’s over, it likely signals the beginning of another streak for Dickman.
The senior has been solid at the plate thus far and is averaging a team-high .479 batting average. Her slugging percentage is .771, meaning she is getting quite a few extra base hits in addition to singles. Dickman will look to continue her success as the team enters Pac-12 play.
Who’s on first?
Like the famous skit, it was unclear who was even on first base for the Utes over the weekend.
Utah has been seeing the ball well in most games, recording hits to get on base. The problem is the Utes left some runs on the bases over the weekend and struggled to score when they had runners on base. In four of their five games, the Utes finished with six or more runners left on base.
These aren’t the worst numbers out there, but the Utes definitely need to learn to convert runs when the opportunity is there.
Getting runners home to score directly correlates with the outcome of the game. This is further proven by the fact Utah is undefeated when it scores four or more runs in their games. Look for Utah to keep improving at the plate as the Utes head to California for a series with UCLA this weekend.
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