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
Four Home Dates on Tap for Utah Baseball
4/21/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
April 21, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Utah baseball team (13-20 overall, 3-8 Mountain West) will try to break a six-game losing streak when it hosts four games this week. The Utes welcome Southern Utah to Franklin Covey Field on Tuesday for the first game of the week. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Then the Utes move to their home away from home when they host UNLV at Lindquist Field in Ogden, Utah, this weekend. First pitch on Friday and Saturday is set for 6 p.m., while the Sunday game will begin at 1 p.m.
Southern Utah enters this week with a 21-15 overall record. The Thunderbirds come to Salt Lake City having won seven of their last eight games.
UNLV is 18-20 overall, an is in fourth place in the league with a 7-8 tally. The Rebels have won three of their last four games, including two of three from then-first-place San Diego State last weekend.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On this week's games against Southern Utah/UNLV: We have to get back on track this week. Our No. 1 goal is to play well. We need to play at the level we were at a couple of weeks ago. We have not pitched, played defense or swung the bats well the last two weeks, and we need to play to our potential.
On last week versus New Mexico: Friday's game was a good collegiate baseball game. We had our chances to win it. But, unfortunately, it didn't go our way. Stephen Fife pitched very well in that game for us.
Saturday and Sunday, we were totally out of sync in every phase of the game. New Mexico is a good ball club. They are a balanced team, and they play great team defense.
Scouting Southern Utah
The Utes and Thunderbirds will tangle for the fourth time this season on Tuesday. Utah swept a three-game series from SUU back on March 6-8. The Utes tallied 13-10, 6-0 and 10-0 wins over the Thunderbirds in Cedar City last month. The two will tangle two more times in Salt Lake City on May 6 and 13. SUU enters this week's contest with a 21-15 overall mark. It has won seven of its last eight games, only losing to South Dakota State back on April 18. The team is hitting .301 for the season, and it has eight hitters batting better than .300. Keli'i Zablan leads the squad with a .375 batting average. He leads SUU in hits (51), doubles (nine) and triples (two). Joe Wright leads the T-Birds with five homers and 28 RBI. The team earned-run average is 5.74. The Thunderbirds' top hurler is Dustin Wittwer. He has a 4.36 earned-run average and a team-best 51 K's. SUU returns 17 letterwinners and seven starters from its 2007 team that went 11-45.
Scouting UNLV
The Rebels enter the week having won four of their last five. That run includes winning two out of three over then-first-place San Diego State last weekend. UNLV is 18-20 this season, and it is in fourth place in the Mountain West with a 7-8 tally. The team is hitting a league-best .322 this season. The Rebels have nine hitters batting .330 or better, led by Xavier Scruggs. He is hitting a league- and team-best .430. Scruggs also leads the conference in slugging (.848), on-base percentage (.516), runs (47), hits (65), RBI (49), doubles (17) and homers (14). The team earned-run average is 7.26 which ranks fifth in the conference. Adam Moser is the team's top hurler, checking in with a 3.89 ERA and five of the team's seven saves. Corey Hales is second on the team with an ERA of 5.01. The Rebels return 13 letterwinners, eight starters and eight pitchers from the 2007 team that went 24-36, 10-14 in conference.
Last Week - After losing the Utah Valley game to weather, the Utes dropped all three games at the University of New Mexico. Utah fell 5-4 (12), 13-3 and 15-8.
Utah jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings, and it still held the 4-3 lead after 7.5 innings. But, New Mexico's Brian Cavazos-Galvez hit a homer in the eighth to tie it and Rafael Neda hit an RBI double in the 12th to win it. UNM held the 11-9 edge in hits as Cody Guymon led the Utes with a 2-for-5, two-run, three-RBI effort at the plate. Stephen Streich got the hard-luck loss in relief, only throwing 1.0 innings and allowing two hits and one run.
The Utes held the 3-2 lead after four innings in game two, but UNM went on to score 11 unanswered runs the rest of the way in tallying the 10-run win. The Lobos owned the 15-12 lead in hits. Cooper Blanc was a team-best 3-for-3 at the plate while Dustin Hennis and Fred Ferguson were both 2-for-4. Brian Budrow took the loss in throwing for six innings and allowing seven hits and six runs (four earned).
The Lobos raced out to a 10-1 lead after five innings. Utah rallied, out-scoring UNM, 7-5, the rest of the way but it wasn't enough as Utah dropped the third game of the league series. New Mexico held the 19-11 edge in hits as Utah's Blanc led the way with a 3-for-5, two run effort. Guymon was the most productive hitter, going 1-for-5 with three-RBI. He hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning. John James took the loss for Utah, going 4.1 innings in allowing 12 hits and 10 runs (nine earned).
Team Notes -
Seventh Heaven - The Utes boast seven hitters with a .300-plus batting average this season. Corey Shimada leads the team with a .364 average. His batting average ranks fifth in the league. He is followed by Dustin Hennis (.354), Michael Beltran (.350), Cody Guymon (.348), Jesse Shriner (.328) and Austin Jones (.328). Those numbers give the team average a boost, as the Utes are hitting .313 for the season. Their batting average is third in the conference, and it's only one of three teams in the Mountain West hitting better than .300.
Be Like Mike! - Freshman Michael Beltran has been posting impressive numbers in his first season of collegiate ball. The rookie shortstop is hitting .350 (42-for-120) for the season, and that number bumps up to .386 (17-for-44) in league-only games. His season average leads all freshman hitters in the MWC, and it ranks eighth in conference-only games. That's not too bad considering he was a meager 1-for-11 (.091) in his first-ever weekend of collegiate ball.
Streak Speak - Seven Utah hitters enter the week on hitting streaks of two games or longer. Leading the charge is freshman Michael Beltran. He has hit safely in seven straight games to lead all Utah batters. Other hitting streaks of note, Cody Guymon and Cooper Blanc both have five-game hitting streaks while freshman third baseman DC Legg has a hit in four straight.
Drawing a "Blanc" - Cooper Blanc has been the team's top hitter over the last two weeks. He's hitting .314 for the season, but over the last 10 games he's been hitting a team-best .385 (15-for-39). Last weekend, he was the team's best offensive threat with a .583 (7-for-12) batting average. Over the last 10 games, Blanc's average has gone up 36 points (from .278 to .314).
Extra! Extra! - Of the 367 hits this year, 106 (29 percent) have gone for extra bases. Utah has hammered out 73 doubles, 10 triples and 23 homers. Those numbers rank fifth, sixth and fifth in the league, respectively. Utah boasts three players with 10 or more doubles. Leading the team in doubles are Jesse Shriner and Cody Guymon (11), triples is Corey Shimada (6) and homers is Cooper Blanc with six. Those rank eighth, first and sixth in the MWC, respectively. Speaking of extra-base hits, Utah's 73 doubles in 33 games is approaching last year's 55-game total (103). Utah's averaging 2.2 doubles per game, and, at that rate, would finish with 111. The school record for doubles in a season is 155 (1997).
The Work Horses of the Staff - Hurlers Brian Budrow and Stephen Fife are the work horses of the team this year. Budrow has thrown 55.0 innings of ball while Fife has tossed 56.1 innings. Together, they have thrown for 111.1 innings (or 39 percent of the innings played), tallied 94 K's (or 43 percent of the team's strikeouts) and have eight of the team's wins. (61 percent). Budrow averages 6.1 innings per start while Fife averages 6.2. Budrow leads the team with a 2.78 earned-run average while Fife owns a 3.51 ERA.
Triple Threat - Utah only has 10 triples this season, ranking sixth in the league. But, the team boasts one of the top hitters in that category. Corey Shimada has six of the team's 10 triples, ranking first in the league. Heading into action last week, Shimada ranked 17th in the nation in triples. Last year, he was third in the nation with 10 triples. For his career, Shimada has a school-record 17 triples. He broke the career record with his triple at San Diego State on April 11.
Balls and Strikes - The team has lost only three games to weather this year. One of the two (the March 30 rain out against Air Force) will be made up ... Utah has held 12 opponents to five runs or less. It is 9-3 in those games. However, the team is 4-17 when allowing six or more runs ... Utah has had four shutouts this season. That is the most in a season since Utah blanked three rivals in 1993 ... nine of the 13 victories this season have been day games ... the team's average for the season is .313. It bumps up to .336 with runners on, and to .400 with the bases loaded. Dustin Hennis is the best hitter with runners on (.382) while Austin Jones is a team-best 4-for-5 (.800) with the bases juiced. His five at bats with bases loaded are the most on the team ... 75 of the team's 204 (36 percent) RBI have come with two outs. Last weekend, nine of the team's 15 RBI (60 percent) came with two outs on the board. Cooper Blanc's 13 two-out RBI lead the team on the year ... opponents hit .303 against Utah, but that average sinks to .286 with two outs. Stephen Fife holds opponents to just .185 hitting when there are two outs ... the team has five saves on the season, and closer Robert Chimpky has three of them. His three saves are tied for fourth in the league.
At the Helm - Head coach Bill Kinneberg is in his fourth consecutive season as Utah's mentor and 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 114-137 all-time at Utah and he owns a 359-320 career record in 12 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 - Utah will play seven of the next eight games on the road. Next week is a three-game series at TCU (May 2-4). The Utes return home the following week to host Southern Utah (May 6) and then they play a four-game series at Air Force (May 9-11). The final week of the season brings Southern Utah (May 13) and BYU (May 15-17) to town. The conference tournament will be at TCU May 20-24.
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