Feb. 13. That was the last time the Utes won an opening night game in a series. The opponent was Sacramento State, and that win happened to be their very first game of the year.
Since that day, the team is 0-10 in the first game of a three-game series, including the Pac-12-Big 12 challenge. While some of the losses have come by large margins, Utah has lost some close ones. Five of the 10 defeats have come by two runs or less, including a 12-inning heartbreaker to Arizona State earlier this month.
But sophomore Dallas Carroll doesn’t think bad luck is to blame.
“I wouldn’t say its luck,” he said. “I mean, at the same time, I wouldn’t say it’s the team. I feel like we come out and prepare better than anyone that we play — it’s just something that we need to overcome. I don’t have an answer for it.”
Junior AJ Young also couldn’t find an exact answer but did say that guys on the team need to step up early in the series and set the tone for the rest of the way.
The Utes will have a few more chances to get this problem turned around as they still have four more series left in the season.
Utes try to power on
You could feel it on Sunday afternoon during the last game of the Washington State series. Everything was quiet, and the game was so slow for the Utes offensively that something just seemed wrong.
Though no one said the team didn’t try hard, the morale in the dugout was not where it needed to be.
“I don’t know if it was the weather … but we were definitely down,” Young said. “[We were] trying to keep teammates up and stuff like that, but [there was] just no energy.”
It was cold and slightly wet from the rain showers that came and went over the weekend — far from a perfect day to play baseball.
Young said he was surprised at the amount of energy the team had coming into their Sunday game after the Utes’ victory on Saturday, especially since the weather was similar.
Utes fight off emotions
The emotional aspect of the season might be apparent after a weekend like the team just had.
Washington State was close to the same record as Utah in conference play, and the Utes looked like they had a good chance to make a move upwards. However, the weekend didn’t pan out like that, and the team is stuck looking toward next week to try and make another move in the standings.
“We definitely felt that the advantage was on our side,” Young said. “We just seriously have to take it one pitch at a time, and we can’t look too far ahead or too far behind.”
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