No. 30 BYU at UVU Tuesday prior to hosting Gonzaga

PROVO, Utah--After stumbling against No. 25 Creighton, No. 30 BYU baseball hopes to regain its balance at Utah Valley University on Tuesday night prior to hosting Gonzaga.

Southpaw sophomore Riley Gates (2-0, 4.50) gets the nod as the Cougars’ (28-9) starting pitcher against the Wolverines (22-18) in Tuesday’s tilt at 6 p.m. That game will be broadcast live by Robbie Bullough and former Cougar pitcher Marc Oslund on BYU Radio—Sirius Satellite 143.

This is the second of three games this season against UVU, with BYU prevailing 6-1 last month in Provo.

On Thursday BYU returns to West Coast Conference action, starting a three-game series against league frontrunner Gonzaga (24-13). The Zags (12-6) have a one-and-a-half-game lead over BYU (10-5) in the WCC standings.

“We control our own destiny,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “There’s so much parity in this league and most everyone is getting better and better as the season progresses.”

The nation’s winningest pitcher Michael Rucker (8-0, 2.81) will start for the Cougars on Thursday at 6 p.m. MDT, followed by Hayden Rogers (4-1, 2.98) on the mound at that same time on Friday. Rucker is tied for the lead at eight wins in the latest NCAA statistics. For the Saturday game at 1 p.m., BYU’s starter is yet to be named.

The Cougars dropped out of most the national polls after losing two of three to Creighton, but continue to be ranked for the seventh-consecutive week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

All of the BYU-Gonzaga games will be televised live by BYUtv.