Utah Baseball Hosts USC for Three at Smith's Ballpark

Friday, March 31

Provo, UT

6:00 PM

University of Utah

USC

Davis Cop and Cameron Gurney - vs UNC 2023

Photo by: Bryan Byerly/Utah Athletics

Utah Baseball Hosts USC for Three at Smith's Ballpark

3/30/2023 1:00 PM | Baseball

Key Pac-12 Conference series to be televised on Pac-12 family of networks

2023 Utah Baseball Game Notes
Games 25-27 Date // Time (MT)	Utah (10-14 overall, 2-7 Pac-12) vs. USC (14-9-1 overall, 7-2 Pac-12) Friday, March 31 // 6 p.m. Saturday, April 1 // 7 p.m. Sunday, April 2 // 7 p.m.
Location	FRIDAY: Provo, Utah (Miller Park) Saturday/Sunday: Salt Lake City, Utah (Smith's Ballpark)
Tickets	UtahTickets.com
Getting to Smith's	Parking: Complimentary parking available on 13th South in the lot across from home plate TRAX: Take the Red, Blue or Green Lines to Ballpark Station (free fare with a game ticket)
Live Statistics	StatBroadcast Friday // Saturday // Sunday
Watch	Saturday: Pac-12 Mountain (channel finder) Sunday: Pac-12 Network (channel finder)
Radio	92.1 FM (Friday/Sunday also available on ESPN 700 AM)
Game Notes	Utah // USC // Pac-12 Conference
@UtahBaseball Social Media	Twitter // Instagram // Facebook // #GoUtes // #UteNotes

The First Pitch: Things to Know
The Utah baseball team hosts a key Pac-12 Conference series vs. USC this weekend. Friday's series opener will be played at Miller Park in Provo, with the other two contests at Smith's Ballpark in Salt Lake City.

Pac-12 Mountain will air Utah vs. USC on Saturday, with Sunday's series finale airing on Pac-12 Network. Thad Anderson will handle play-by-play on the TV broadcast, with former longtime Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg joining on Sunday night as analyst.
Bill Riley will call the series on the radio airwaves; 92.1 FM will carry all three games and ESPN 700 AM will have the Friday and Sunday games.
Utah is looking to bounce back from last weekend's series at No. 9/7 Stanford, though forward strides were evident for the Utes. Utah took the Cardinal right to the wire in game one and led late, but a walk-off homer by Stanford's Drew Bowser gave the home club a 6-4 victory to open the series. Jayden Kiernan had a career-high four hits and Davis Cop put Utah in front with an eighth-inning homer.
Lefty Ernesto Lugo-Canchola shined in his first start as a Ute with a career-best seven strikeouts and retired nine in a row at one point.
Fellow southpaw Bryson Van Sickle went five innings in the middle game, giving up three runs. Jayden Kiernan contributed a 2-for-3 effort and Davis Cop added a hit, but the three hits would be all Utah could muster in a 5-1 setback despite an offensive threat in the top of the ninth.
In the series finale, the Utes tied a season-high with 16 hits and led in the sixth inning, but Utah was unable to overcome a seven-run home half of the sixth in a 16-8 result. The game saw four players contribute three-hit performances, highlighted by TJ Clarkson eclipsing 100 hits in his Utah career.
Utah took two of three in last year's series at USC and came just short of the series sweep. Matthew Sox dealt a 106-pitch complete game in the 11-3 series opening victory, setting the tone for the club on a weekend where Davis Cop was 5-for-9 and Jayden Kiernan had seven RBI. Zac McCleve picked up the Saturday win in relief, dealing 3.2 innings of shutout ball and retiring 10 of the first 11 batters he faced.
Utah is looking for its first series win at home over the Trojans since 2019, and first series wins over USC in consecutive seasons since joining the Pac-12.
Following the series with the Trojans, Utah will host an in-state battle on Tuesday, as Utah Tech makes the trek up I-15 to SLC. First pitch in that game is scheduled for 6 p.m. MT.

Checking the Numbers

Utah enters the USC series with 28 stolen bases on the season; it is tied with USC for the Pac-12 lead and is three from matching the club's total from 2022.
Cameron Gurney made it all the way to Friday, March 17, before being retired by strikeout for the first time. It ended a streak of his first 49 collegiate at bats without a 'K', and puts Gurney as the nation's top freshman when it comes to toughest players to strike out (with only three strikeouts on the season, he averages one every 23.3 at bats). He leads all players in the Pac-12 and ranks No. 5 of all players nationally.
Six-foot-seven lefty Micah Ashman earned his fifth save last Tuesday vs. Northern Colorado. It is tied for the Pac-12 lead and No. 16 nationally.
TJ Clarkson's six home runs are more than halfway to Clarkson's long ball total from last season (11) and brings the redshirt junior to 20 homers in his career. Clarkson eclipsed 100 career hits during the Stanford series; it helped him continue his reached-base streak to now 20 games. It comes after Clarkson ran up a streak of 38 straight games last season.
Landon Frei is closing in on the 100-hit milestone as well, sitting at 92 in his Utah career entering the USC series.