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 Battles Conference Power TCU on the Road
4/29/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
April 29, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Utah baseball team (16-21 overall, 5-9 Mountain West) has the heady task of playing one of the top Mountain West Conference teams on the road this weekend. After taking a break to complete final exams, the Utes will play second-place TCU (29-15, 13-5 Mountain West). First pitch on Friday is at 6:30 p.m., while the Saturday game starts at 2 p.m., and the Sunday game at 1 p.m. All times are Central Daylight Time.
The Utes enter the game having won three of their last four games. Last week, the Utes topped Southern Utah in a non-conference, mid-week game, and they won two-out-of-three against UNLV over the weekend.
TCU has won six of its last eight games, including the last two against conference rival San Diego State. The Horned Frogs play two mid-week games before hosting the Utes this weekend. They battle No. 6 Texas A&M on Tuesday night and Texas-Arlington on Wednesday evening.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On this week's games at TCU: Like any weekend, I want to go down to TCU and play well. We have to go to Texas and play one of the top teams in the conference, at one of the best stadiums in the conference, and it's a great baseball atmosphere as well. Hopefully, it's fun for the players to experience and it motivates them to play well.
On last week versus Southern Utah/UNLV: I think it was a positive weekend for us. We pitched extremely well in all three games, and I thought our offense was a lot better. However, we still need to play better defense. That was a problem at times for us last weekend, and it has been a thorn in our side the whole season.
Scouting TCU
Utah and TCU will lock horns for the first time this season. The last time these two rivals met was during the conference season last year. Then-No. 23-ranked TCU won all three meetings. This year, the Horned Frogs sport a 29-15 overall record, and they are in second place in the Mountain West with a 13-5 tally. They play Texas A&M and Texas-Arlington prior to hosting Utah this week. The team is hitting .290 for the season as six of its players are hitting better than .300. They are led by Clint Arnold and his .365 batting average. However, Chris Ellington leads TCU in doubles (15) and RBI (34), while Matt Carpenter is tops in homers (five). The Horned Frogs boast the stingiest pitching staff in the conference, allowing a league-low 3.62 earned runs per game. Three of their pitchers rank in the conference top 10 in ERA with Tyler Lockwood's 2.12 average leading the team. It checks in at second in the conference. TCU returned 15 letterwinners, five starters and six starting pitchers from the 2007 team that went 48-14 and made it to the NCAA Regional. Jim Schlossnagle is in his seventh season at the helm.
Last Week - Utah broke out of a six-game losing streak by going 3-1 last week. The Utes topped Southern Utah, 9-6, in mid-week action, and it won 2-out-of-3 from UNLV in league play. The Utes topped the Rebels on Friday and Sunday, 10-2 and 9-4, respectively, and they lost on Saturday, 4-3.
Southern Utah scored three in the first inning, but Utah scored the next eight runs in finishing with the 9-6 victory. Corey Shimada's solo homer capped off a four-run second inning to give Utah the lead. It would never lose the lead, but Jesse Shriner's two-run homer in the fourth plated the would-be game-tying and game-winning runs for Utah. The Utes belted out 14 hits to SUU's eight. Austin Jones and Cooper Blanc led Utah with 3-for-4 efforts. Andrew Wilding got the win and Robert Chimpky came on to get the save.
Utah and UNLV were tied, 1-1, after the second inning of the first game of the series. But, Utah went on to score nine straight runs in running away with the 10-2 win. The Utes got everything they needed in the third when Shriner hit a two-run homer, lifting Utah to the 3-1 lead. The Utes also benefitted from a three-run fifth and a three-run seventh in hammering UNLV. The Utes held the 11-7 edge in hits as Blanc's 3-for-4 outing led the way. Stephen Fife fanned 12 batters in tallying the complete-game victory.
Game two saw UNLV rally from behind to tally the 4-3 win. Utah took a 2-1 lead into the eighth, only to see the Rebels plate two runs in the top of the top of the eighth. Austin Jones' RBI double in the bottom of the eighth tied it, but UNLV got an unearned run in the ninth to edge Utah. UNLV held the 8-7 edge in hits. Shriner went 3-for-5 to lead Utah at the plate. Chimpky took the hard-luck loss in relief.
Utah rebounded in game three for the 9-4 win. The Utes scored all nine runs in the first four innings. They tallied 11 hits, nine of which went for extra bases. It was Shimada's solo homer in the fourth that gave Utah what it needed to get the win. The hits were even, 11-11, as Shriner's 3-for-4, three-run effort paced the home team. John James hurled the Utes to victory.
Team Notes -
The Dirty Dozen - Hurler Stephen Fife had quite an outing in the 10-2 win over UNLV last weekend. The hard-throwing right-hander fanned 12 Rebel batters in tallying his second complete-game victory of the season. Fife only allowed seven hits, two earned runs and one walk as he recorded his fifth victory of the year. The 12 strikeouts in a single game ties Brian Budrow's 12-K performance against Indiana back on March 13. Also, the 12 strikeouts ties the school record for whiffs in a game. The standard was set by Jason Price back in 2004.
Everything Counts in Large Amounts - Utah has had no problem rounding the bases this season. Its .466 slugging percentage is tied for the league lead as Utah belts out an extra-base hit 31 percent of the time. But, last weekend, Utah went nuts. The Utes had 22 extra-base hits and a total of 43 hits. In the final game against UNLV, the Utes hammered out 11 hits and nine of them were for extra bases. In that game alone, Utah smacked six doubles and three homers. The Utes' slugging percentage over the four games last week was an eye-popping .603.
Slump? What Slump? - Jesse Shriner shirked a hitting slump in impressive fashion last week. In the six games leading up to last week, the senior catcher hit .083. He had only two hits in 24 at bats. But, last weekend, Shriner proved to be one of Utah's big hitters. Over those four games, he hit .474, had a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .474 on-base percentage. Shriner hit 9-for-19, and he had four doubles and two homers, recording five RBI. He led the team last week in doubles and homers, and was second on the squad in RBI.
The Extra Effort - Corey Shimada made the most of every hit last week. The all-conference second baseman went 5-for-16 (.313) last weekend, but all five hits were for extra bases. He finished last week with a .913 slugging percentage, hitting two doubles, a triple and two homers. Shimada's slugging percentage went up to a team-best .608 for the season. That ranks fourth in the league as he is only one of four Mountain West Conference players with a slugging percentage of .600 or better.
Be Like Mike! - Freshman Michael Beltran has been posting impressive numbers in his first season of collegiate ball. The rookie shortstop is hitting .346 (46-for-133) for the season, and that number bumps up to .352 (19-for-54) in league-only games. His overall season average leads all freshman hitters in the MWC, and it ranks ninth 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.
Big Hitters - The Utes are one of the best-hitting teams in the conference. They're first in both on on-base (.389) and slugging (.466) percentage, and second in batting average (.314). Those numbers get a boost from their six players hitting better than .300 this year. In fact, Utah has the most players ranked among the league's top 15 hitters than any other school. Corey Shimada (.358) is fifth, Jesse Shriner (.347) is eighth, Michael Beltran (.346) is ninth, Austin Jones (.342) is 11th, Cooper Blanc (.338) is 13th and Cody Guymon (.338) is 14th.
Extra! Extra! - Of the 410 hits this year, 128 (31 percent) have gone for extra bases. Utah has hammered out 87 doubles, 12 triples and 29 homers. Those numbers rank fourth, sixth and fifth in the league, respectively. Utah boasts three players with 10 or more doubles. Leading the team in doubles is Jesse Shriner (15), triples is Corey Shimada (7) and homers is Cooper Blanc with six. Those rank fourth, first and sixth in the MWC, respectively. Speaking of extra-base hits, Utah's 87 doubles in 37 games is approaching last year's 55-game total (103). Utah's averaging 2.3 doubles per game, and, at that rate, would finish with 114. The school record for doubles in a season is 155 (1997).
Arms Race - Hurlers Stephen Fife and Brian Budrow are the work horses of the team this year. Fife has thrown 65.1 innings of ball while Budrow has tossed 62.1 innings. Together, they have thrown for 127.2 innings (or 40 percent of the innings played), tallied 113 K's (or 46 percent of the team's strikeouts) and have nine of the team's wins (56 percent). Budrow averages 6.2 innings per start while Fife averages 7.2. Budrow leads the team with a 2.89 earned-run average while Fife owns a 3.31 ERA.
Triple Threat - Utah only has 12 triples this season, ranking sixth in the league. But, the team boasts one of the top hitters in that category. Corey Shimada has seven of the team's 12 triples, ranking first in the league. Through April 20, Shimada ranked fourth in the nation in triples. Last year, he was third in the nation with 10 triples. For his career, Shimada has a school-record 18 triples. He broke the career record with a triple at San Diego State on April 11.
Balls and Strikes - Utah has held 15 opponents to five runs or less. It is 11-4 in those games. However, the team is 5-17 when allowing six or more runs ... Utah has thrown four shutouts this season. That is the most in a season since Utah blanked three rivals in 1993 ... 85 of the team's 231 (36 percent) RBI have come with two outs. Cooper Blanc and Cody Guymon lead with 13 two-out RBI on the year ... opponents hit .296 against Utah, but that average sinks to .274 with two outs. Stephen Fife holds opponents to just .218 hitting when there are two outs ... the team has six saves on the season, and closer Robert Chimpky has four of them. His four saves are tied for second 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 117-138 all-time at Utah and he owns a 362-321 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 returns to Ute Field on May 6 to host Southern Utah. It hits the road again May 9-11 for a four-game series at the Air Force Academy. The final week of the season has Utah hosting Southern Utah (May 13) and BYU (May 15-17).
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