Completed Event: Baseball versus No. 11 seed Kansas State on May 19, 2026 , Loss , 5, to, 9
Final Score
Baseball
5
vs No. 11 seed Kansas State
9
The University of Utah Athletics
Baseball Opens Season at San Jose State
2/21/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Utah baseball team (0-0 overall) begins the 2008 campaign with a four-game series at San Jose State (0-0 overall). The weekend schedule has changed from its original plan. The schedule was to play one on Friday, two Saturday and one Sunday. However, due to heavy rain in San Jose, the teams will play two on Friday starting at 2 p.m. Then, they will play single games on Saturday and Sunday with first pitch set for 1 p.m. on both days.
The 2008 season marks the first season that the NCAA has instituted a uniform start date for all Division I baseball teams.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On preseason workouts: The preseason workouts have gone as well as we could have expected. We haven't played outside at all, and we were hoping to have practiced outside a couple times by this point. But, due to the snow, we just haven't been able to do that.
We are pretty healthy after the preseason and everyone on the team is anxious to get outside and to take the field.
On what the team is working on this week: This weekend is going to be a lot firsts for this team. It's our first time outside since November, and it's going to be the first Division I ball game for a lot players. We are hoping, by Sunday, that we will have gotten rid of a lot of cob webs, and that we will have gotten used to the speed of the game.
We're going to use a lot of pitchers and a lot players, and we are going to see where everyone is at after this weekend.
On San Jose State: San Jose State is in the same situation as we are in. They have a lot of new guys on their roster, but they also return some of their key players from last year. I'm sure they are just as anxious as we are to get out on the field. Both teams just want get out there and play, I'm sure.
Scouting San Jose State
With the uniform start date, this weekend is also the first weekend for the Spartans. They return seven letterwinners and four starters from the 2007 squad that went 34-26, and 11-13 in the Western Athletic Conference. The Spartans finished fourth in their conference last season, and went 2-2 in the WAC tournament. Kyle Bellows is among the team's top returning position players. The sophomore infielder leads all returners having hit .346 with six homers last season. SJSU also returns five of its pitchers. Righty Scott Sobczak leads the corps of returning hurlers. In 2007, he made eight starts and went 6-2 with a team-best 3.86 earned-run average. Sam Piraro is in his 21st season as the team skipper. He is 654-495-6 as the SJSU head coach.
Team Notes -
Honors Student - Two of Utah's top returning players have been honored. Sophomore Corey Shimada and Senior Nate Burnham were both named preseason all-conference by the rivals.com network. Shimada was also a MWC preseason all-league pick.
Shimada was an all-conference pick at the end of the 2007 campaign. He led the league and was third in nation in triples. He belted 10 triples (0.18 per game) while hitting a team-best .346. He also led the team in on-base percentage (.463) and finished with an impressive .573 slugging percentage.
Burnham completed the 2007 season with a .326 batting average. He had 76 hits, 19 of which went for extra bases. Burnham had 13 doubles and five homers. He also had a .417 on-base percentage and a .455 slugging percentage.
I See... In Your Future... - The Utah baseball team was picked to finish sixth the Mountain West Conference preseason poll. It received 23 points. TCU was picked as the preseason favorites, garnering 60 points and six first-place nods. The Horned Frogs were followed by BYU (52 points), San Diego State (42), New Mexico (40), UNLV (26), Utah and Air Force (9).
Last year, the Utes were picked to finish sixth as well. However, the Utes superseded the prediction and finished tied for third in the league.
At the Helm - Head coach Bill Kinneberg is in his fourth consecutive season as Utah's mentor, and it is his fifth overall season as the Ute head coach. He was on the Utah bench for the 1996 season, and returned to The U., in 2004. He is 101-117 all-time at Utah and he owns a 346-300 career record in 11 years. Prior to Utah, Kinneberg was a head coach at both UTEP and Wyoming, and he was also a pitching coach in the White Sox minor league organization. Bill Kinneberg is assisted by Bryan Conger, Bryan Kinneberg and Nate Schlieman.
Up Next - The Utes continue their 17-game road swing with a four-game series at UC Davis. The team will play the Aggies on Feb. 29-March 2. The Saturday, March 1, contest will be another doubleheader. It will the be the team's second doubleheader, and the last one scheduled for the year.
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballESPN+ Feature | Utah Baseball's Seth Graham-Pippin & Jet Gilliam
Friday, May 15
ESPN+ Feature | Behind Game Day: Grass & Turf
Tuesday, May 12
ESPN+ Feature | Utah Baseball's Luke Jacobs
Wednesday, April 29
ESPN+ Feature | Utah Baseball's Cal Miller
Friday, April 24