The Pac-12-leading Utah baseball team (10-15, 7-2 in Pac-12) will be in Southern California this weekend, playing against USC. The Utes are currently tied at the top of the conference standings with California, and have been exceeding expectations in Pac-12 play to begin the season. They have set a program record with their seven Pac-12 wins and have won three straight conference series.
Despite the team’s success, head coach Bill Kinneberg is focused on the simple aspects of the game in order to reach greater things.
“That’s not what it’s about, it’s about playing good baseball and that’s what I’m concerned with. My goal is to play well and get better every game,” Kinneberg said. “We can’t worry about the standings at this point, we can’t worry about wins. We just have to take care of business and hang in there and learn from each game.”
The Utes have gained some national attention recently, partially due to right fielder Josh Rose’s incredible diving catch in last weekend’s sweep of Arizona, Utah’s first Pac-12 series sweep ever. The Utes also appeared in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s rankings at No. 30, despite losing to UVU on Tuesday for the second time this season.
Utah’s conference success can be partially attributed to the pitching (3.65 team ERA), as the Utes lead the conference in strikeouts (78) during Pac-12 play. Jayson Rose (4-2, 2.89 ERA) has been the ace of the rotation with a 1.66 ERA in conference games, and closing pitcher Dylan Drachler has notched five saves on the season (four in Pac-12 play). Rose currently leads the conference with 55 strikeouts overall.
Utah pitchers are currently ranked fourth in the Pac-12 in ERA and are holding Pac-12 opponents to a batting average of .251, and are tied for third-fewest in the conference with nine home runs allowed. A double play is commonly referred to in baseball as a pitcher’s best friend, and Utah currently ranks second in the conference, with 27 double plays.
Rose will take the mound for the Utes on Friday against USC’s Joe Navilhon, before Dalton Carroll takes on the Trojans’ Mitch Hart on Saturday. Sunday’s probable starting pitchers are Utah’s Josh Lapiana and USC’s Kyle Davis.
Offensively, the Utes struggled to begin the season, but seem to have things in order recently, raising the team’s batting average to .254, ranking fourth in the Pac-12.
DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. leads the Utes with a .318 batting average and is tied with Cody Scaggari (.290 batting average) with 27 hits. Hunter Simmons leads Utah with 12 RBIs, and Kody Davis leads in steals with six. Though it hasn’t been the case in all the games this season, Max Schuman has recently been entered into the batting lineup and will be making his 13th start of the season, hopefully providing a boost to Utah’s offense.
“The one thing that the coaches have put into the team this year is having belief in those late innings, because in previous years we haven’t always responded well to adversity late in games,” Schuman said. “This year the team has a much stronger bond and our belief in each other and what we are trying to do is a lot higher.”
In the other dugout, the Trojans struggled against Stanford last weekend, winning just one of three. However, they are coming off an exhilarating 10-inning win over Pepperdine on Tuesday, and will be looking to knock Utah off the top of the conference standings.
“I don’t think there is ever a down week in the Pac-12, so we are going to have to go out and be hungry for this weekend,” Schuman said.
Friday’s game will begin at 7 p.m. MST, as the Utes will attempt to win their fourth straight conference series.
@ArmenMShrikian