Conference play is off and running and the University of Utah baseball team is looking ahead to its three-game series with Stanford this weekend after being swept in Seattle by Washington.
Playing away from home can be difficult but head coach Bill Kinneberg is proud of the work his pitchers did on the mound in their first league series despite not getting wins.
“When you give up seven, eight, nine runs for a three games series that is pretty good on the road against a really good team,” Kinneberg said. “Defensively, we’re fine.”
Right-handed pitchers Jayson Rose, Riley Ottesen, and lefty Josh Lapiana started last weekend’s games.
Rose set a season-high seven strikeouts in game one against the Huskies. Rose leads the team with 26 strikeouts and he ranks No. 10 in the Pac-12. He is 2-1 on the year. Ottesen has 24 strikeouts, and that puts him behind Rose for the most strikeouts on the team. He is 3-0, and he has pitched 21 1/3 innings. That ties him for seventh place in the conference. Lapiana is 1-3 on the season and he has pitched 21 2/3 innings where he has struck out 21.
Mentally Prepared
The Utes are not dwelling on last season’s underdog Pac-12 Championship victory just as much as they are not letting last weekend’s results bog them down. They know better than to do that.
Moving forward, focusing on what is ahead and being mentally prepared is important to this team as conference play is only going to get more competitive in the coming weeks. First baseman Hunter Simmons believes staying mentally prepared is huge, especially when things are not going the way the team had hoped.
“Believing that we’re still in the game throughout the whole nine innings” is the key to having success according to Simmons. Whether winning, down a few runs or strikeout after strikeout, having the right mindset can be extremely valuable.
The Utes know how to play and they know how to play together as a team. Being mentally prepared is the thing that will really help them during this season’s grind, not only in league play but as they try to again make it to the NCAA Regionals.
Getting Runners Home
The Utes are tied for fourth in the conference in runs scored with 101 and they are batting .283 on the season. That places them in fourth place in the Pac-12 in batting average. The Utes have been able to see success at the plate and when their bats get hot it is hard to put out the fire, but there was that bump in the road this past week.
Against the Huskies, the team struggled with getting key hits – hits that would have driven in runs. The Utes stranded a total of 19 runners on base throughout the three-game series, 11 alone in game three.
“We had people on base but didn’t get them in to score,” Kinneberg explained. “Those things happen in baseball.”
Executing, not just getting hits but capitalizing on those hits to add runs to the scoreboard is something the team is focusing and working on this week as they gear up for its next conference series against the Cardinal.
@Britt_Colindres