Pac-12 Play Begins with Three-Game Series at Washington

Friday, March 10

Seattle, WA

6:05 PM

University of Utah

Washington

Pac-12 Play Begins with Three-Game Series at Washington

3/9/2023 3:00 PM | Baseball

Utah looks to build momentum heading into league slate coming off Tuesday victory

2023 Utah Baseball Game Notes
Games 13-15 Date // Time (MT)	Utah (6-6 overall, 0-0 Pac-12) at Washington (10-2, 0-0 Pac-12) Friday, March 10 // 6:05 p.m. MT Saturday, March 11 // 1:05 p.m. MT Sunday, March 12 // 1:05 p.m. MT
Location	Seattle, Wash. (Husky Ballpark)
Live Statistics	StatBroadcast Friday // Saturday // Sunday
Television	Friday: Pac-12 Mountain Saturday: Pac-12 Washington Sunday: Pac-12 Networks Channel Finder
Game Notes	Utah // Washington // Pac-12 Conference
@UtahBaseball Social Media	Twitter // Instagram // Facebook // #GoUtes // #UteNotes

The First Pitch: Things to Know
Pac-12 Conference play is here for the Utah baseball team and the first league series of 2023 sends the Utes to the Pacific Northwest for a weekend at Washington. All three games of the series are scheduled to be broadcast on the Pac-12 family of networks, with A.J. Kanell on play-by-play and Steve Elkin producing.

This weekend's series will bring Utah's Spring Break trip to a close. The Utes began the road swing with a three-game series at UTSA from March 3-5, then flew to Cal State Fullerton for a 3-2 win on Tuesday night.
For the second season in a row, Utah and the Huskies are meeting to begin the Pac-12 Conference schedule. Last season in Salt Lake City, the Utes dropped the series opener in 10 innings by a 6-3 score, but bounced back to take the middle (7-6) and rubber matches (3-1) to take the series win.
TJ Clarkson hit .273 during the 2022 series vs. Washington, tallying two doubles and a pair of RBI. Davis Cop, who at that point was transitioning to Utah's starting catcher, had a pair of hits as well.
In the Sunday game last year, Utah's Cam Day dealt 6.1 innings of one-run ball for the win. He had five strikeouts and just one walk before Blake Whiting later closed it out with a two-inning save. Lefty Bryson Van Sickle proved clutch in relief during the series' middle game, firing 3.1 shutout innings with just one hit allowed, no walks and six strikeouts at Smith's Ballpark.
Though the Utes were held to five hits, the club outlasted Cal State Fullerton by a 3-2 score on Tuesday night at Goodwin Field. Freshman Kaden Carpenter was one of the stars of the show for Utah, not only driving in two runs with a sac fly and a safety squeeze, he also came up with a web-gem catch in foul territory to end the eighth inning.
On the mound, Ernesto Lugo-Canchola earned his first win as a Ute after a three-inning relief appearance with five strikeouts.
Reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week TJ Clarkson is hitting .310 on the season while also making three pitching appearances. He bookended last weekend's UTSA series with home runs and was 5-for-10 in the three games. Instrumental in the weekly award for Clarkson was a Feb. 27 win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, in which Clarkson began the game at designated hitter, then went in to pitch 2.2 innings and hit two homers while pitching.
Newcomers coming on the scene of late include catcher Cameron Gurney, third baseman Jake Gish and outfielder Elijha Hammill. Each have reached base safely in nine-plus consecutive games, with Gurney also hitting safely in nine straight contests. Bruer Webster has also taken on the shortstop role after two seasons at Salt Lake Community College, winning back-to-back ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove awards.
Although the Utes fell short of reaching the 2022 Pac-12 Tournament, the relatively young club showed signs of promise for the future. Utah (26) had a nine-win improvement from the previous season, set Pac-12 era program records in seven offensive categories and had the program's first-ever ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner in first baseman Alex Baeza.