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Utah Baseball Notes
5/19/2004 12:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY -
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Coming Up
Utah (21-31, 11-16) hosts San Diego State (30-27, 16-9) for a three-game series this Thursday-Saturday, May 20-22, at Franklin Covey Field. The Thursday and Friday games start at 6 p.m., while the Saturday game begins at noon. As Saturday is Senior Day, all eight seniors will be honored prior to the game.
Utah Probable Starters
Pos. Name B/T BA R H 2B 3B HR RBIC Nate Schlieman R/R .242 12 15 2 1 1 10 1B Trevor Eastman R/R .278 30 37 11 0 3 31 2B Jared Pena R/R .367 41 77 24 2 7 50 3B Jay Brossman R/R .383 36 54 9 2 2 22 SS Ryan Khoury R/R .309 38 64 12 0 5 24 LF John Welsh R/R .259 18 30 5 3 4 20 CF Matt Ciaramella S/L .356 48 78 25 1 13 59 RF Eric Chevalier L/L .330 42 61 10 6 7 34 DH Tyson Olson L/L .269 35 46 12 6 5 36
Probable Pitching Match-Ups
Thursday, May 20 B/T ERA W-L G/GS IP H R ER BB KOJason Price (Utah) L/L 6.22 3-8 19/15 94.0 108 81 65 40 92 Scott Shoemaker (SDSU) R/R 4.50 8-6 17/17 98.0 110 55 49 24 99 Friday, May 21 B/T ERA W-L G/GS IP H R ER BB KO Doug Mackay (Utah) R/R 6.67 4-7 16/14 79.2 96 71 59 42 74 Daryl Harang (SDSU) L/L 4.27 5-5 16/15 78.0 90 50 37 38 64 Saturday, May 22 B/T ERA W-L G/GS IP H R ER BB KO Ben Buck (Utah) R/R 4.59 6-2 31/8 80.1 112 52 41 19 43 Bruce Billings (SDSU) R/R 5.36 5-1 13/7 40.1 45 26 24 23 36
Utah Update
Utah went 1-3 last weekend at UNLV. The Utes dropped the first and second games 8-6 and 19-5 before rebounding to win the third game 11-7. Utah then lost the series finale 24-10 on Sunday. Senior second baseman Jared Pena was 10-for-14 on the series (.714 batting average) with four doubles, two home runs and 11 RBI. Senior Ben Buck earned the win on the mound, improving to 6-2 on the season, while junior Clay Westmoreland picked up his ninth save of the year and 10th of his career, both of which are new school records.
Scouting the Opposition
The Aztecs won two of three games against Brigham Young at home last weekend to remain in third place in the MWC, two games behind UNLV. San Diego State fell 11-2 in the series opener on Wednesday, managing only five hits on the night. Game two saw the Aztecs have the big inning as they scored seven runs in the fourth en route to an 11-8 victory. On Friday, Lance Zawadzki had a pair of home runs including a grand slam as SDSU knocked off BYU, 9-4.
MWC Standings
MWC Overall W L Pct. W L T Pct.UNLV 19 8 .704 32 20 0 .615 New Mexico 18 9 .667 22 26 1 .459 SDSU 16 9 .640 30 27 0 .526 BYU 12 12 .500 22 28 0 .440Utah 11 16 .407 21 31 0 .404 Air Force 0 22 .000 5 41 0 .109
Ciaramella Named Academic All-District
Center fielder Matt Ciaramella, a junior from Skyline High School in Salt Lake City, has been named to the Academic All-District VIII Baseball Team. He has advanced to the national ballot, the results of which will be announced on Tuesday, June 1. Ciaramella boasts a 3.52 grade-point average as a business major. He was a 2003 first-team Academic All-District pick, is a two-time MWC Scholar Athlete and has twice been named to the MWC All-Academic team.
Record Watch
In Utah's win over UNLV Saturday night, junior reliever Clay Westmoreland broke the single season (9) and career (10) saves records.
Senior Ben Buck has the new single-season record for appearances with 31, surpassing the previous record of 28 set by Brandon Page in 1997.
Earlier in the season, sophomore Jason Price set the single game record for strikeouts with 12 on March 4 at Southern Utah. Price now has 92 on the season, two away from the record of 94, set by Mitch Maio in the 2002 season. Price also has 15 starts this season, two away from tying the record of 17, set by Jared Cavaness in 2000.
Junior outfielder Matt Ciaramella now has 25 doubles on the season, one away from the record of 26, which was set by Brit Pannier in 2002. He also has 58 on his career, just two away from the all-time career record of 60, also held by Pannier.
Senior Eric Chevalier and junior Tyson Olson both have six triples on the year, one away from the single-season record of seven, held by Sam Swenson (2000).
Ranking Nationally
In NCAA statistics through May 16, Ute center fielder Matt Ciaramella ranks second in the nation in doubles per game with a 0.48 per game average. Senior Jared Pena is currently eighth in doubles with a 0.46 average. Junior Tyson Olson currently ranks 20th nationally in triples per game (0.14), while senior Eric Chevalier ranks 26th nationally in the same category with an average of 0.13.
Ciaramella MWC Player of the Week for April 19-25
Junior Matt Ciaramella was named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for April 19-25 after helping Utah take two of three games at San Diego State as he belted five doubles and a home run vs. the Aztecs. Ciaramella started the week with a home run, a run scored and two RBI vs. Utah Valley State. In a one-run loss to SDSU in the series opener, he was 2-for-2 with a home run, a double and two RBI. In game two, he hit a pair of doubles, drove in two runs and scored another as Utah won 7-6. In the series finale, Ciaramella hit two more doubles, drove in another two runs and scored twice in a 9-4 victory. For the week, he hit .438 (7-for-16) with eight RBI, five runs scored, five doubles and two home runs.
Buck MWC Pitcher of the Week for April 5-11
Ben Buck was the MWC Pitcher of the Week for April 5-11. Buck, a senior from Thornton, Colo., went 1-0 in three appearances. In a doubleheader against Southern Utah, he pitched 2.0 innings of relief, giving up just two hits, while striking out three. He pitched one inning of relief in the second game of the series against the Lobos, giving up one hit. The following day, he threw a complete-game win, pitching all nine innings, giving up two runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits. For the week, Buck pitched 12.0 innings, giving up just one earned run on nine hits for 0.75 ERA.
Pena MWC Player of the Week for March 1-7
Senior shortstop Jared Pena was the MWC Player of the Week for March 1-7 after leading the Utes to a 3-0 record on the week. Pena hit .571 with two doubles, a home run and six RBI on the week. He also had a stolen base on his only attempt. In the first game against Southern Utah, he went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. In the second game vs. the Thunderbirds, Pena was 1-for-4 with one run and one RBI. On Saturday, Pena was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate, with four runs scored and five RBI.
Franklin Covey Field
Utah plays the majority of its conference home games at state-of-the-art Franklin Covey Field (15,500). The 13,000-seat facility (not including the general admission area) also serves as the home to Salt Lake's AAA baseball team, the Stingers, an affiliate of the Anaheim Angels.
On Deck
Utah will participate in the Mountain West Conference Tournament next Wednesday-Saturday, May 26-29, at UNLV.
Players Mentioned
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