Utah Baseball kicked off their home opening weekend with a thrilling series of three against the Oklahoma State Cowboys this weekend, narrowly missing the clean sweep in the process.
Game One
On Friday, the Utes kicked things off with a sweeping shutout to welcome the Cowboys to the Beehive State. The action started slow, but in the bottom of the fourth inning Utah came out with a bang. With two of his fellow Utes on base, Derek Smith stepped up to send a homer out to left field.
Now suddenly up by three, two hits in the bottom of the fifth added one more to the tally for Utah. In the seventh, two Utes walked to first before an Austen Roellig double brought them home, earning the freshman a double RBI. Roellig nabbed a run of his own prior to the almighty Smith stepping up to the plate, who delivered his second homer of the day to rack the score up to 10-0.
By the bottom of the eighth, Oklahoma State still lacked an answer for the Utah offense. To polish off the game, Roellig nailed his fourth hit of the evening, the most of the Utes that day, giving Core Jackson enough time to get home and bump the score to 11-0.
Game Two
Unfortunately, Saturday was not as powerful for the series host. Oklahoma State beat the Utes to the board with a single run in the first, but a Jackson double helped Utah match the score to kick things off. The senior contributed again in the third, sending a rocket homer down right center to put an RBI under his belt and the Utes ahead by one.
Despite the chilling Utah air, the Cowboys began to find some momentum and earned a handful of successful hits in the top of the fifth — first a single, followed by a homer with two on base.
Down by three, the Utes responded with a Roellig double, subsequently earning him a run. Within only two runs of Oklahoma State, the Utah offense choked — the seventh and the eighth went scoreless with only one hit across the two, before one final run was clinched in the ninth. As a result, the Utes faced a painful defeat at only 4-5.
Game Three
After the previous day’s bitter loss, Utah came back with a vengeance on Sunday. Roellig continued his high-performing weekend, kicking off the first inning with an RBI from a fielder’s choice. The bottom of the third saw another run for the Utes, and the Cowboys inched closer with a score of their own in the fifth.
As the inning turned over, Utah found the energy they were looking for — Kaden Carpenter delivered the first hit, doubling to left center and earning himself an RBI. With two Utes on base, Smith stepped back up to the plate, though instead of a homer the junior hit an easy single to earn an RBI as well.
Two more hits to claim the same in runs and load two on base set up the grand finale — up to bat, Jackson sent a homer down the line, earning a triple RBI in the process. Oklahoma State followed suit in the sixth with a homer of their own in an attempt to dent the score, but a wild pitch in the seventh and two more Ute runs in the eighth sent the Cowboys packing. The final score sat at 12-3, marking the second double-digit game this weekend for Utah.
Up Next
On Tuesday, the Utes will head down to St. George for a quick one-off game against instate rivals Utah Tech, before returning to Smith’s Ballpark next weekend for a series of three against Arizona State, which can be viewed on ESPN+.
