After dropping a 5-4 heartbreaker to BYU on March 15, Utah head coach Amy Hogue didn’t mince words about the performance of the Utes’ offense, which went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“We will never beat a good team if we don’t find a way to make adjustments offensively earlier in the game,” Hogue said.
The Utes took their coach’s advice to heart, outscoring their opponents 53-21 in the five-game stretch after losing to the team down south. Utah has also outhit its opponents 52-37.
After the weekend, Hogue was pleased with the results the offense gave her, attributing the turnaround to the team’s confidence.
“These kids realize their abilities and stopped doubting and stopped second-guessing and let themselves swing in some batter counts,” Hogue said. “It changed everything for them, and now that we have confidence, I expect they’ll do more of that moving forward.”
Freshman outfielder Ally Dickman echoed her coach in attributing the offensive success this weekend to confidence.
“I think we came out with a lot of confidence, and just doing it for each other, that really helped,” Dickman said.
Utes start perfect in Pac-12 play for first time ever
For the first time since joining the conference in 2012, the Utes are undefeated in Pac-12 play, sweeping the No. 23/24 Oregon State Beavers to start conference competition 3-0. This year was the first time Utah has played its first Pac-12 series at home.
“Starting off Pac-12 [play] with wins is huge — we’ve never had a chance to open at home, and we’ve always started from a negative record, and it’s nice to start in front,” Hogue said.
Dickman wins Pac-12 Freshman of the Week
Utah outfielder and designated player Ally Dickman was awarded the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award on Monday. The award, given for play from March 14-20, is Utah’s first weekly honor from the conference. In the span, Utah went 4-1, with two wins over Southern Utah, two wins over No. 23/24 Oregon State and one loss to BYU. Dickman batted .333 on the week, with six RBIs, three hits and four runs scored.
“It feels good [to win the award]. I just want to be my best for my team and score the runners,” Dickman said.
Utes extend streaks, set high marks
This weekend, Anissa Urtez and Heather Bowen extended personal streaks. Urtez extended her hitting streak to seven straight games, while Bowen extended her streak of reaching base safely to 12 games.
When Utah beat Oregon State 14-6 on Sunday, it set a plethora of team game highs for the 2016 season. The Utes’ 14 runs were the most scored in a game this year, their 18 hits were the high mark for most hits in a game and the 14 runs batted in were the best in a game in the campaign, so far.
Also, Katie Donovan struck out nine Beavers in Utah’s 7-5 victory over Oregon State, the most strikeouts any Ute pitcher has thrown in a game this year.
@JoeColesChrony