The reigning Pac-12 Champions, the Utah baseball team gets its 2017 season underway on Friday, Jan. 27, with a trip to St. George, Utah.
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The Utes have been working through individual practices through the winter.
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"Individuals went very well," Utah head coach
Bill Kinneberg said. "Everyone is healthy and we are ready to start our team practices. It's always good to get out and go to St. George and be able to get on grass and dirt and have a chance to scrimmage. We're looking forward to it.
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"We'll be looking to work on getting in baseball shape. We're three weeks away from playing. Building pitchers up, getting live at-bats and live situations are the things we're most concerned with."
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Several Utes have earned preseason accolades. Junior pitcher
Jayson Rose was selected as a third-team Preseason All-American by
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Rose, sophomore outfielder
DaShawn Keirsey, Jr., and senior third baseman
Dallas Carroll were all named to Perfect Game's preseason all-conference team. Perfect Game also selected Rose as one of the top 100 college juniors (#44) while Carroll was picked as one of the top 50 college seniors (#32).
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Utah returns three first-team All-Pac-12 players in Rose, Keirsey and Carroll as well as honorable mention selectionsÂ
Josh Rose andÂ
Dylan Drachler. The Utes went 19-11 in league play en-route to the conference championship, reaching the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2009, and beating Ole Miss in the NCAA Regional.
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