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 Plays In-State Rival Southern Utah
3/4/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
March 4, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Utah baseball team (0-7 overall) continues its 17-game season-opening road swing when it plays at Southern Utah March 6-8. It is a three-game series with single games on March 6 at 1 p.m., March 7 at 1 p.m., and March 8 at noon. Southern Utah (4-1 overall) won two out of three against Utah Valley State last weekend. It will play host to Dixie State on Tuesday before hosting Utah.
Last weekend, the Utes dropped all four games to UC Davis. They fell 12-4 in game one, 13-5 in game two, 7-5 in game three and 14-13 in the final game of the set.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On this weekend's games at SUU: We've seen some good things in the first two weekends. We're looking to get outside this weekend so that we can continue to make the adjustments that need to be made. After this weekend, we want to see the team playing to its potential at the Fresno State tournament next week.
On last weekend's games at UC Davis: We got better in some area last weekend. We definitely played a lot better on defense. But, UCD is a good team. They did a good job on offense against us, and I feel that we didn't pitch to our capabilities. Sunday's game was especially tough. With 25 mile-per-hour winds and strong wind gusts, it was havoc trying to pitch or play defense.
On the team's progress thus far: We've swung the bats well for this early in the season. That's encouraging to us. We still need to work on improving our execution, though.
Scouting Southern Utah
The Thunderbirds enter the week with a 4-1 record. They will host Dixie State in a non-conference tilt on Tuesday afternoon. Last weekend, the T-Birds topped Utah Valley State in the first game, 13-8, and lost the second game, 7-2. SUU won the rubber match by topping UVSC, 4-2, in the third and final game of the series. Southern Utah returns 17 letterwinners and seven starters from the 2007 team that went 11-45 overall and 6-14 (fifth) in the Summit League. The pre-season coaches poll tabbed SUU to finish in fifth place in the Summit League. After five games, the Thunderbirds have five regulars hitting .300 or better. They are led by the stick of Chester Wilson who is hitting .565 (10-for-18). Wilson leads the team with a pair of homers and four extra-base hits, but Ray Wright (.438, 7-or-16) leads SUU with three doubles on the young season. Mac Nelson and Dustin Wittwer are the top hurlers thus far this year. Nelson has thrown a staff-best 14.2 innings, and he has given up eight hits and five walks to eight strikeouts. Wittwer has tossed 12.0 innings of work and leads the team with 11 K's to one walk. He's scattered nine hits.
Last Week - The Utes dropped all four games against UC Davis last weekend. The Utes fell 12-4, 13-5, 7-4 and 14-13.
In each of the first two games of the Davis series, the Utes allowed the Aggies to jump out to 8-0 leads. In game one of the series, Utah trimmed the deficit to six runs, 8-2, after four innings. But UCD ran away with the game, out-scoring Utah, 4-2, the rest of the way. Cooper Blanc's 3-for-4, two-RBI effort led the Utes in the first game. Stephen Fife took the loss.
UCD's 8-0 lead in game two swelled to 12-1 after six innings. The Utes staged a rally, but could only plate three runs in the eighth to make it 12-5. UCD hung one last run on the board in the eighth. Michael Beltran went a team-best 3-for-4 at the plate. Brian Budrow took the loss in game two.
The Utes scored first in the third game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on the Aggies. Utah still had the 4-1after 5.5 innings, but UCD plated three runs to tie it in the bottom of the sixth. UC Davis out-scored Utah, 3-1, over the last two innings to steal the 7-5 win. Jesse Shriner led the team with a 3-for-5 outing at the plate.
Utah was in control in game four, jumping out to a 10-3 lead on the Aggies. But, UCD rallied in the sixth inning to knot it at 12-12. The Utes went up in the ninth inning, thanks to Beltran's middle up the single, scoring Blanc. However, the 13-12 lead wasn't enough as UCD hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to rally for the come-from-behind victory.
Robert Chimpky was saddled with the loss in relief in both games three and four.
Team Notes -
Lucky Sevens - Seven games in to the season, and the Utes have two players with seven-game hitting streaks. Both Jesse Shriner and Cody Guymon own seven-game hitting streaks. Not too far behind them is freshman Michael Beltran. He is currently on a five-game hitting streak. In fact heading into play this week, seven of the nine starters have hitting streaks of two games or more.
Make Yourself Comfortable - Michael Beltran had a rough introduction into college ball his first weekend of play. In the first three games of the year at San Jose State, Beltran managed to hit at a meager .091 (1-for-11). However, last weekend at UC Davis, Beltran was the team's second-best hitter. He hit .438 during the series, going 7-for-16 with his first career double. His first college two-bagger was in the series-opener against Davis. Beltran's effort last weekend raised his batting average to .296.
Diamond in the Rough - The pitching staff had a rough weekend at UC Davis, giving up 65 hits and finishing with a 10.12 earned-run average. But, one hurler who didn't have as tough an outing on the mound was Andrew Wilding. In his one appearance, he went 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs. But, only two of the runs were earned. He finished the weekend with a team-leading 3.38 earned-run average.
Rounding the Bases - Jesse Shriner continues to be Utah's big hitter after two weeks of play this season. Shriner leads the team with five extra-base hits. He has three doubles and is tied for the team lead with two home runs. Shriner has accounted for five of the team's 20 extra-base hits thus far this season. Shriner leads the team with a .700 slugging percentage (ranking eighth in the league), and he is second on the team hitting .400. His batting average is ninth in MWC.
Down, but Not Out - The Utes have 13 RBI with two outs on the board this season. They have 39 total RBI this season, so the Utes have tallied one-third of their RBI with their backs against the wall. Cody Guymon and Cooper Blanc lead the team in that category, plating three two-out RBI this season. However, the best batter with two outs in an inning is Jesse Shriner. He hits a team-best 4-for-12 (.333) in that situation
Balls and Strikes - Utah is 0-6 in day games, 0-1 in night games ... Utah has out-scored opponents in the last three innings 17-15. ... after committing 11 errors over the first three games of the year, Utah straightened things out somewhat, recording only five errors over four games last weekend. In fact, in the last game, Utah didn't have a single miscue ... the team is hitting .287 for the season, but that average jumps up to .355 when there are runners in scoring position. Cody Guymon is 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position, and Jesse Shriner is an impressive 6-for-9 ... Utah's leadoff hitters are batting .344 ... Guymon has reached as a leadoff hitter a team-best four-of-seven times ... Bennett Askew leads the pitching staff in two-out situations. Opponent batters are 1-for-9 against Askew when he has two out on the other team.
At the Helm - Head coach Bill Kinneberg is in his fourth consecutive season as Utah's mentor and his fifth overall as the Ute head coach. He was on the Utah bench for the 1996 season, and returned to The U., in 2004. He is 101-124 all-time at Utah and he owns a 346-307 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 will take part in the six-game Pepsi Johnny Quick Tournament in Fresno, Calif., from March 10-15. Then, it will host the home-opener on March 20-22 when San Diego State comes to town.
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