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 Enters MWC Tournament as the Fifth Seed
5/18/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball
May 18, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The No. 5-seeded University of Utah baseball team (23-26 overall, 10-14 Mountain West) treads into the 2008 postseason when it plays the No. 4 seed BYU in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Tuesday evening. First pitch on the campus of TCU is set for 7 p.m. (CDT). Should Utah win its first-round game, it would remain in the winners bracket of the double-elimination tournament to face either top-seeded TCU or the second-seeded New Mexico on Wednesday. In the event of a loss, Utah would play the loser of the No. 3 San Diego State/No. 6 UNLV game in the consolation bracket on Wednesday at 11 a.m. (CDT). The winner of the tournament receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
All 11 games will be televised live on The Mtn., while the championship game will be broadcast on both The Mtn. and the CBS College Sports Network. In addition, live stats and audio can be found at the official athletics Web site for the University of Utah, www.UtahUtes.com.
Utah has won seven of its last nine heading into the tournament. However, the Utes lost the last two regular season games to BYU. The team has qualified for all eight previous Mountain West Conference Tournaments, and it owns a 7-16 all-time MWC Tourney record. The Utes have won seven of eight first-round games.
Quoting Head Coach Bill Kinneberg:
On the Mountain West Conference Tournament: We have to bounce back from our loss on Saturday. That's our No. 1 priority. It's important that everyone on the team picks themselves up, and that they are mentally prepared to play on Tuesday.
I like the way we are set up this week in terms of pitching. We have Brian Budrow on Tuesday, Stephen Fife on Wednesday and John James on Thursday. All of them will have at least six days rest, and I think our starting pitchers are set up as well as anyone else heading into the tournament.
I know that if we play to our potential, this team can go far in the tournament.
Scouting BYU
Tuesday will mark the fifth time that these two schools, separated by only 40 miles back in Utah, will meet this season. The two tangled in Provo, Utah, back on April 8 with Utah netting the 9-7 non-conference win. When the two met last week for their three-game conference series, the Cougars won two out of three. Utah won the series opener, 5-3, and the Cougars won the last two, 15-2 and 13-10. BYU enters the tournament with a 22-34 overall mark and it earned the fourth seed in the tournament with a 10-14 MWC tally. The Cougars are the fourth-best hitting team in the league at .308. They have six .300-plus batters, led by the bat of Sean McNaughton (.354). He also paces the team with 14 homers, 22 doubles and 53 RBI. The team's earned-run average checks in at 7.37, and Jared Miller is the team's top hurler with a 5.84 ERA and four saves. However, Jake Wortham is the team's most prolific thrower. In a team-best 82.1 innings pitched, Wortham has a 6.67 ERA. Vance Law is the head coach, and he is in his ninth season in the dugout.
Scouting the Rest of the Field
Tournament host TCU is the championship's No. 1 seed. The Horned Frogs sealed the regular season championship last weekend by taking two out of three from New Mexico. They are 39-16 overall and they were 19-5 in league play. New Mexico earned the No. 2 seed, and it enters the tournament having lost two out of three to TCU. The Lobos are 32-23 overall, going 16-8 in MWC play. San Diego State played four non-league games last week, dropping one to Long Beach State and three to nationally-ranked Fullerton. The No. 3-seeded Aztecs wrapped up the year 30-26 and 16-8 in conference tilts. No. 6 UNLV ended the year dropping two out of three at Air Force. The Rebels enter tournament play with tallies of 21-35 and 9-15. Utah and it's record this year against the conference is: TCU, 0-3; New Mexico, 0-3; San Diego State, 1-5; BYU, 2-2; UNLV, 2-1.
Last Week - The Utes finished .500 last week as it went 2-2 in the final four regular season games of the year. Utah topped Southern Utah, 7-6, and BYU, 5-3. But it lost the last two games of the BYU series, 15-2 and 13-10.
After racing out to an early 4-1 lead on Southern Utah, the Utes found themselves trailing 6-4 heading into the eighth inning of last Tuesday's game. After loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the eight, Cooper Blanc hit a two-RBI single to tie the ball game. A Michael Beltran single loaded the bases again, and SUU pitcher Kyle Hamman balked in helping the Utes plate the game-winning run. The T-Birds owned the 13-9 edge in hits as Blanc led Utah with a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort. Tyler Andersen picked up the win in relief.
Utah won its seventh straight game in downing BYU, 5-3, last Thursday. It was the first of a three-game series with the Cougars. Tied 2-2 after the second inning, Utah scored a run in each the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to capture the two-run win. A fielding error by BYU allowed Utah to take the 3-2 lead in the fourth. Austin Jones' sac fly in the fifth proved to be the game-winner, and Nick Kuroczko's homer in the sixth was the insurance Utah needed to assure the win. The Cougars scored in the seventh, but could get no closer. Both teams had nine hits on the night as Blanc's 2-for-3 outing led the Utes. Hurler Stephen Fife picked up his seventh win of the year.
BYU raced out to a 7-0 lead in the second game of the series on Friday, putting it out of reach for Utah. The Utes tried to rally in the eighth, as a pair of RBI singles from Dustin Hennis and Tyler Relf made it 7-2. But the Cougars scored eight in the ninth to tally the 15-2 win. BYU held the 19-9 edge in hits. Hennis was a team-best 3-for-4 with one RBI. Pitcher John James was dealt the loss for Utah.
Starting Utah pitcher Bryn Card pitched six innings of scoreless ball, and Jesse Shriner went 5-for-5 with five RBI in helping Utah build a 10-0 lead in the first six frames. But, BYU sent 16 batters to the plate in the seventh, and it scored 12 runs on 11 hits en route to the 13-10 win. The visiting Cougars owned the 18-16 edge in hits and Shriner's outing led the Ute offense. Robert Chimpky took the loss in the relief.
Team Notes -
On the Rise - Cody Guymon had a hit in each of the four games last week. By doing so, he extended his hitting streak out to a career-high 12 straight games. His hitting streak is the third longest by a Utah player this year, and it's the longest by a Utah player heading into the tournament. Prior to the 12-game hitting streak, the junior catcher/designated hitter was hitting a not-too-shabby .358. That average ranked sixth on the team. In the last 12 games, Guymon has hit .529 and his average has jumped up almost 30 points to a team-best .386.
Pick a Card, Any Card - Lefty Bryn Card has had some impressive showing in his last four appearances for Utah on the mound. The junior pitcher hasn't allowed a run in his last14.2 innings of work. That number was buoyed by his last outing against BYU on Saturday. Card kept the Cougars on their heels as he went six innings, scattering just five hits. He allowed neither a run nor a walk. Over the last 14.2 innings, Card has seen his earned-run average nearly cut in half from 8.22 to 4.25.
High Fives For Jesse - Jesse Shriner had an outstanding effort in the Saturday loss to BYU. The senior catcher went 5-for-5 at the plate, and he belted in five RBI. That was his second five-hit outing of the year, having gone 5-for-5 with four RBI at Southern Utah back on March 8. For his career, Shriner has had two five-hit games (both this year), and two five-RBI efforts (last Saturday and in April, 2007, versus Utah Valley State). Shriner has been one of the team's top hitters the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, he won MWC Player of the Week in hitting .522 (12-for-23), and last week he hit .500 (9-for-18). The last two weeks combined, he's hit .512 and his batting average has jumped 24 points (from .340 to .364) during that span.
The 1-2 Punch - Utah's No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers, Stephen Fife and Brian Budrow, have been the mainstays of Utah's pitching staff. They have combined to throw 157 (37 percent) of the team's total innings, and they have a combined 138 (43 percent) of the team's strikeouts. Opponents who face these two pitchers hit just .266, well below the team's opponent batting average of .296. Fife leads Utah's starting pitchers with a 3.35 earned-run average while Budrow is second with a 3.68 ERA. Both have etched their respective names in the Utah record book, tying the school's record for strikeouts in a game. Fife had 12 K's against UNLV (April 25) and Air Force (May 9). Budrow fanned 12 opponents at the Pepsi Johnny Quick tournament against Indiana (March 13).
Now That's Clutch - Cody Guymon isn't afraid to swing the bat with two outs. He leads the team with 20 two-out RBI. He also has an impressive .365 batting average with two outs on the board. Freshman shortstop Michael Beltran isn't too bad in clutch situations either. Beltran is tops on the team with a .369 two-out batting average. His 14 two-out RBI are third.
Be Like Mike! - Freshman Michael Beltran has been posting impressive numbers in his first season of collegiate ball. The rookie shortstop is hitting .376 (67-for-178) for the season, and he finished conference play hitting .389 (35-for-90). His overall season average leads all freshman hitters in the MWC, and it ranks fourth in the league. More impressive, though, Beltran finished the last month of the regular season hitting a blistering .425 (25-for-58). Prior to the final month of regular-season play, Beltran was hitting .358. Those numbers aren't bad considering he was a meager 1-for-11 (.091) in his first-ever weekend of collegiate ball (at San Jose State, Feb. 22-24).
Big Hitters - The Utes are one of the best-hitting teams in the conference. They're first in batting average (.326), and in slugging (.481) and on-base (.396) percentages. Those numbers get a boost from their eight .300-plus hitters this season. Utah is the only team in the MWC with eight .300-plus hitters in its lineup. Utah's top hitters are: Cody Guymon (.386), first on the team, second in the league; Michael Beltran (.376), second on the team, fourth in the MWC; Jesse Shriner (.364), third on the team, sixth in MWC; Cooper Blanc (.345), fourth on the team, 11th in the league and Corey Shimada (.340) fifth on the team, 15th in MWC. Utah's other .300 hitters are Austin Jones and Dustin Hennis, hitting .328 and .326, respectively. Nick Kuroczko has been in the starting lineup for the last 11 games. He's hitting .351 this season and would rank ninth in the league if he had enough at bats.
The Third Degree - Nick Kuroczko has started the last 11 games at third for Utah, and he's made the most of it. During that span, Kuroczko is hitting .359 with two doubles, a triple, two homers and 11 RBI. The sophomore hit the first homer of his career in the 7-6 win over Southern Utah last Tuesday, and he hit his second round-tripper in the 5-3 win over BYU on Thursday. The last 11 games also saw him record a .615 slugging percentage and a .405 on-base percentage. He replaced freshman DC Legg who started the first 38 games at third. Legg is hitting .250 on the year.
Triple Threat - Utah only has 16 triples this season, ranking fifth in the league. But, the team boasts one of the top hitters in that category. Corey Shimada has seven of the team's 15 triples, ranking tied for second in the league. Through May 11, Shimada ranked 13th 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.
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 124-143 all-time at Utah and he owns a 369-326 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 - Should Utah win the Mountain West Conference Tournament this week, it would advance to the NCAA Tournament. Regional action begins on May 30 at sites yet-to-be-determined.
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