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
BYU, San Diego State on Deck for Utah Baseball
4/7/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
April 7, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Utah baseball team (12-14 overall, 3-2 Mountain West) will play four games this week. It will battle BYU in a non-conference tilt at Miller Park in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday at 2 p.m., and then it returns to league play with a three-game series at San Diego State. The Utes and Aztecs will do battle on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Tony Gwynn Stadium. First pitch on each day is slated for 6 p.m., 1 p.m., and 1 p.m., respectively.
The Utah-BYU game renews the Deseret First Duel, the official rivalry between the two league schools. Heading into this week, BYU leads the season series, 23-17. Utah has won 11 of the last 16 points that were up for grabs.
The Utes enter this week having won five of their last seven. This will be their first time facing their in-state rival, BYU (14-17 overall), but it is the second time around against San Diego State (18-13, 6-3). Utah went 1-2 against Aztecs when they visited Salt Lake City back on March 20-22.
BYU won two of three against UNLV last weekend, shirking a six-game losing streak. SDSU enters the week on the heels of a 3-2, 11-inning win over New Mexico. That win snapped a three-game losing streak. The Aztecs have a two-game series with Arizona this week before playing Utah.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On this week's games against BYU/SDSU: BYU is a fun rivalry game, and we'll go down there wanting to play very well. This definitely won't have the typical feel of a Tuesday non-conference game for us.
This is going to be our second time around with San Diego State. We need to shore up some aspects of our game before this weekend, but it's important that we continue do what made us successful against them last time. SDSU is a talent-rich ball club. If we play to our potential down there, then it will be a good series.
On last week versus UVU: Last week was a hard week for us. We had to play four non-conference games, four straight days, and that can be tough. I was pleased with our play in a lot of areas last week. But, I was disappointed with the quality of our play at times. We didn't swing the bats well until Saturday, but that happens. I'm glad we pushed through it and now we need to move on.
Scouting BYU
The Cougars come into the game with a 14-17 overall record. BYU snapped a six-game losing streak last weekend by winning two of three over conference rival UNLV. Last time out, BYU thumped the Rebels, 21-12. BYU is hitting .296 this year, led by six hitters batting better than .300. Steve Parker is tops on the team hitting .339. Kent Walton is second with a .336 batting average. Dan Vargus leads BYU with 13 doubles, Walton leads the team with five triples and Sean McNaughton paces the squad with seven homers. The team earned-run average is 7.47. The top hurler on the staff is Jordan Muir with a 4.76 ERA. Muir is tops on the squad with 38 K's. BYU returns 17 letterwinners and five starters from its 2007 team that went 37-20. The Cougars took second in the Mountain West Conference, going 17-7. Vance Law is in his ninth season at the helm. He is 279-220-2 all-time as the BYU coach.
Scouting San Diego State
The Aztecs come into the week with an 18-13 overall record. They are currently in first place in the Mountain West Conference with a 6-3 mark. Last weekend, it won one of three against New Mexico, snapping a three-game skid by topping the Lobos in the last outing, 3-2 (11). SDSU has a two-game series at home with Arizona before Utah visits. The Aztecs are hitting .274 for the season and have four hitters with a .300-plus batting average. Leading the team is Troy Hanzawa (.354). Garrett Green leads the squad with seven doubles, and he is second on the team in hitting (.333). The team boasts a 4.47 earned-run average. Pacing the pitching staff is James McLaughlin. He owns a 2.05 ERA in 30.2 innings of work. Stephen Strasburg is the team's strikeout leader with 50 K's in 41.1 innings. He has a 2.40 ERA. Major League Hall-of-Famer Tony Gwynn is at SDSU's helm. He is 143-164 in five years there.
Last Week - The Utes split a four-game series with Utah Valley last week. Utah dropped game one, 8-0, won game two, 4-3, lost game three, 4-2 and won the final game, 17-16.
Utah Valley out-hit Utah, 11-4, in blanking the Utes in game one. UV scored seven runs off of Utah starter John James, and it tagged Bennett Askew for three runs and Tyler Anderson for one. Four different Utah batters recorded a hit in the loss.
The Utes rallied for the 4-3 win in the second game of the series. The Wolverines came back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth. But, Utah scored two runs in the fifth for the win. Michael Beltran and Tyler Relf hit a pair of RBI singles to plate the game-tying and game-winning runs. Stephen Fife got the start and the win, upping his record to 4-2. Robert Chimpky came on to record his second save of the year.
A 1-0 lead through four innings didn't hold for Utah as the Wolverines benefitted from a four-run (all unearned) fifth inning. Utah could only respond with one run in the bottom of the fifth, falling to UV, 4-3, in game three. Austin Jones recorded both RBI. He hit an RBI double in the first and a sac fly RBI in the fifth. Brian Budrow got the loss for Utah, falling to 4-2 on the year. He threw for six innings.
Utah won a 17-16 slugfest in the fourth and final game of the series. Both teams banged out 18 hits, as Corey Shimada's 4-for-5, two-run effort led the Utes. The Wolverines had a pair of players tally four hits in the loss. Utah led 13-7 after four innings, but had to weather a UV team that out-scored Utah, 9-4 the rest of the way. It was a four-run seventh innings that lifted Utah to the victory. Utah took advantage of three Wolverine errors in that inning, plating four unearned runs. Geoff Wolfgramm got the win in relief. He is now 1-0 on the year.
Team Notes -
Change of Venue - The Utah-UNLV series on April 25-27 has been moved from Fanklin Covey Field to Lindquist Field in Ogden, Utah. The games were originally going to be played in Salt Lake City but the series had to be moved to Ogden due to a conflict with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. Game times are at 6 p.m., on April 25-26, and 1 p.m. on April 27. Lindquist Field opened in 1997, and it seats 5,000. Lindquist Field is the home of the Ogden Raptors of the Single-A Pioneer League.
The Hit of the Party - Corey Shimada is on a 13-game hitting streak. That is currently the second-longest streak by a Utah player this year. Shimada is hitting team-best .390 for the season, and he has had a hit in 24 of the 26 games this year. The junior second basemen is posting all-conference numbers at the plate. While his .390 batting average is second in the Mountain West Conference, he's first in runs scored (34), and he is second in slugging (.610) and on-base percentage (.508).
Now, That's Offensive - Utah's offense has packed some power this season. The team's batting average (.328), slugging percentage (.481) and on-base percentage (.404) are all tops in the Mountain West Conference. Seven Utah hitters have a slugging percentage of .407 or better, six of are batting .330 or better and five have an on-base percentage of .402 or better. Corey Shimada is tops on the team in all those categories with a .390 batting average, .610 slugging percentage, and a .508 on-base percentage.
Extra! Extra! - Of the 304 hits this year, 92 (30 percent) have gone for extra bases. Utah has hammered out 63 doubles, eight triples and 21 homers. Those numbers rank fourth, sixth and second in the league, respectively. Leading Utah in doubles is Jesse Shriner (11), triples is Corey Shimada (4) and homers is Cooper Blanc with six. Those rank third, second and third in the MWC, respectively. Speaking of extra-base hits, Utah's 63 doubles in 26 games is more than half of last year's 55-game total (103). Utah's averaging 2.4 doubles per game, and, at that rate, would finish with 121. The school record for doubles in a season is 155 (1997).
Hitting on All Cylinders - The Utes have had double-digit hits in 16 games this season, and 10 of the team's 12 wins this season have come in those outings. Utah is 10-6 in those games. Utah has won the last six games in which it has had 10 or more hits. Last week, the team had two games with 10-plus base knocks. Utah beat Utah Valley, 4-3, with 11 hits, and it also beat the Wolverines, 17-16, with 18 hits. The 18 hits for Utah in the last tilt are the third most in a game this season. It had a season-high 22 against Air Force on March 29, and 19 versus Southern Utah on March 8.
Conference Killers - Utah has a team earned-run average of 5.34 this season. That average ranks fourth in the conference. But, the team's ERA drops to 3.80 in MWC-only games. Leading the pitching staff in league-only games is Geoff Wolfgramm. He's got a 0.00 ERA. Checking in with sub-3.00 ERA's are Brian Budrow (2.70) and Stephen Fife (2.93).
Diaper Dandy! - Michael Beltran continues to a bright spot among the league's freshmen. He is the league's top-hitting freshman (.363), ranking seventh in the Mountain West Conference. In league-only games, the freshman shortstop is the top hitter, hitting .500 versus MWC foes.
Balls and Strikes - The team has lost only two games to weather this year. One of the two (the March 30 rain out against Air Force) will be made up ... Utah has held 10 opponents to five runs or less. It is 9-1 in those games. The team is 3-13 when allowing six or more runs ... eight of the 12 victories this season have been day games. However, Utah has won four of its last six night outings. ... the team's average for the season is .328. It bumps up to .356 with runners on, and to .379 with the bases loaded ... 60 of the team's 178 (33 percent) RBI have come with two outs. Last weekend, 13 of the team's 20 RBI (65 percent) came with two outs on the board. Cooper Blanc's 11 two-out RBI lead the team ... opponents hit .295 against Utah, but that average sinks to .258 with two outs. Stephen Fife holds opponents to just .188 hitting when there are two outs.
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 113-131 all-time at Utah and he owns a 358-314 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 hosts Utah Valley at Ute Field on April 15, and it continues conference play at New Mexico on April 18-20.
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