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
Q&A With Coach Kinneberg
10/17/2019 12:04 PM | Baseball
Coach Catches Us Up on How Fall Practice Has Been
As the Utah baseball team heads into the final month of practice this fall, UtahUtes.com caught up with head coach Bill Kinneberg on how the team has been doing.
On how the fall has gone so far:
For the most part, it's been very productive. We've had one game against BYU that was good and defined some things we need to work on. It gave the guys a chance, particularly the new guys to play against another team. That was good to get the blood flowing that way. We'll end the fall with another game at BYU, so we're looking forward to that to see the improvement that we've made the last couple of weeks and kind of wind our fall ball down a bit. Fall has gone well and we've had some good performances. We've made some strides. We're still battling some injuries that the guys came in with, but none that seem to be a problem for the season so we're in good shape that way.
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The benefit of playing scrimmages against another team:
First objective is going through a routine of gameday and getting used to playing down at our stadium. All the pregame stuff with workouts, doing batting practice and then getting into an actual game with umpires and an opposing team. As far as the game goes, I'm not concerned about scores. I just want to play each inning as a new opportunity for guys, so I'm not concerned with wins or losses or runs scored or given up. I'm looking for situations that come up in a game, how we handle them and how we can improve for the spring. That's more of my objective for the fall games.
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On replacing some productive players at the plate from last season:
Guys getting a year older should help. We have most of our offense back from last year, but we did lose some mainstays in our lineup from a year ago. That's something we'll have to fill and we hope everyone else in the lineup improves and becomes better players. It's not just a one guy offense so to say. You also hope the new guys coming in can get adjusted quickly and can help you out on each side of the baseball on offense, defense or pitching, whatever it is, so that we've created depth and competition within ourselves. Once we start in February, we'll have a pretty good idea of our top 11 or 12 position players are and who our top 10 to 11 pitchers are.
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How are the freshmen doing adjusting to college baseball so far:
The freshmen are coming along very well. We've had a couple of injuries that have slowed a couple of them down, but for the most part they're doing a really good job of coming in and getting used to the daily grind as well as the time management it takes to play a sport here. All of those things have been positive and they're getting better as baseball players so we're excited about that.
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His goal as fall practice comes to an end:
For me, it would be having comfort that we're solid in every position and have some depth at every position in case something happens. Just to get to know our ball team, particularly the new guys and what they're about and have them know what we're about with our philosophies. Having a good base to start with when we get back for the spring with fundamentals, and we can move forward to getting our game refined. Those are all hopes that I have by the time Thanksgiving hits are that we're healthy, we're ready to go into the holidays with the season in mind and guys knowing where they stand and we know where they stand.
Â
On how the fall has gone so far:
For the most part, it's been very productive. We've had one game against BYU that was good and defined some things we need to work on. It gave the guys a chance, particularly the new guys to play against another team. That was good to get the blood flowing that way. We'll end the fall with another game at BYU, so we're looking forward to that to see the improvement that we've made the last couple of weeks and kind of wind our fall ball down a bit. Fall has gone well and we've had some good performances. We've made some strides. We're still battling some injuries that the guys came in with, but none that seem to be a problem for the season so we're in good shape that way.
Â
The benefit of playing scrimmages against another team:
First objective is going through a routine of gameday and getting used to playing down at our stadium. All the pregame stuff with workouts, doing batting practice and then getting into an actual game with umpires and an opposing team. As far as the game goes, I'm not concerned about scores. I just want to play each inning as a new opportunity for guys, so I'm not concerned with wins or losses or runs scored or given up. I'm looking for situations that come up in a game, how we handle them and how we can improve for the spring. That's more of my objective for the fall games.
Â
On replacing some productive players at the plate from last season:
Guys getting a year older should help. We have most of our offense back from last year, but we did lose some mainstays in our lineup from a year ago. That's something we'll have to fill and we hope everyone else in the lineup improves and becomes better players. It's not just a one guy offense so to say. You also hope the new guys coming in can get adjusted quickly and can help you out on each side of the baseball on offense, defense or pitching, whatever it is, so that we've created depth and competition within ourselves. Once we start in February, we'll have a pretty good idea of our top 11 or 12 position players are and who our top 10 to 11 pitchers are.
Â
How are the freshmen doing adjusting to college baseball so far:
The freshmen are coming along very well. We've had a couple of injuries that have slowed a couple of them down, but for the most part they're doing a really good job of coming in and getting used to the daily grind as well as the time management it takes to play a sport here. All of those things have been positive and they're getting better as baseball players so we're excited about that.
Â
His goal as fall practice comes to an end:
For me, it would be having comfort that we're solid in every position and have some depth at every position in case something happens. Just to get to know our ball team, particularly the new guys and what they're about and have them know what we're about with our philosophies. Having a good base to start with when we get back for the spring with fundamentals, and we can move forward to getting our game refined. Those are all hopes that I have by the time Thanksgiving hits are that we're healthy, we're ready to go into the holidays with the season in mind and guys knowing where they stand and we know where they stand.
Â
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