BYU baseball to host Utah at 3 p.m. on Tuesday

PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball is back in action on Tuesday, March 14, at 3 p.m. MDT versus Utah at Miller Park in Provo. 

The Tuesday evening contest was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. MDT, but was moved two-hours earlier in an effort to avoid inclement weather expected in the forecast. The game is the first of three contests between the rival schools during the 2023 season. The other two games are scheduled for April 18 in Provo and May 9 in Salt Lake City. 

BROADCAST. The game will be broadcast live on the BYU Radio App and BYU Radio 107.9 FM in the northern Utah market, with Greg Wrubell on the call. The game will also air on the BYUtv App and BYUtv.org with Dave McCann and Gary Sheide on play-by-play and color. 

SERIES HISTORY. The Cougars and Utes have previously met 375 times in baseball since 1948 (first year of complete season records), with BYU holding a 248-126-1 (.663) series advantage. The first recorded intercollegiate athletic event at BYU was a baseball game between then Brigham Young Academy and the University of Utah in the spring of 1895. The game ended in a 3-3 tie when a controversial call started a bench-clearing brawl.

Utah holds a slim 16-15 (.516) advantage in the 31 games played since 2012, when the two universities joined different conferences. Home field has proven to be a slight advantage as BYU is currently 8-6 (.71) at Miller Park and Utah is 10-7 (.588) in Salt Lake City. 

UTAH REVIEW. The Utes enter the midweek game with a 7-8 overall record having played previous games with USF (1-3), Houston (0-1), Incarnate Word (1-0), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2-0), UTSA (1-2), Cal State Fullerton (1-0) Washington (1-2). All 15 games were on the road. 

COUGAR REWIND. The Cougars enter the Utah game at 4-10 on the season, having dropped two games over the weekend with Creighton in Lawrence, Kansas. BYU has played 11 of 14 games in 2023 on the road, including LA Tech (2-2), Louisiana (0-4), Utah Tech (0-1) and Creighton (0-2). The Cougars are 2-1 at home having won the series with Omaha, March 2-4. 

ON THE HILL. Junior left hander Mason Olson (0-1, 3.38 ERA) is scheduled to start for BYU in what will be a staff pitching day. Olson has appeared in six games out of the bullpen with 16.1 innings and 17 strikeouts. 

Utah will start lefty TJ Clarkson (1-0, 1.35 ERA) who has appeared on the mound in three games for the Utes. The junior has thrown 6.2 innings with five strikeouts. 

AT THE PLATE. Offensively the Cougars are led by Austin Deming, Ryan Sepede and Ozzie Pratt. Deming is a returning first-team All-WCC performer who leads the team in multiple offensive categories including RBI (16), hits (21), HRs (7), doubles (7) and slugging (.925). Sepede leads the Cougars in average (.409), on base percentage (.500) and is second in RBI (18). Pratt leads BYU in at bats (58), doubles (7) and is third in hits (16), triples (1), total bases (26) and walks (8).

The Utes are led by Caeron Gurney who is hitting .333 and leads Utah in hits (15) and is second in home runs (2) and doubles (2). Clarkson, who pitches and plays outfield, is hitting .288 and leads Utah in hits (15), RBI (15), home runs (6), doubles (3), slugging (.692) and total bases (36). 

UP NEXT. Following the Utah game, BYU is off to Los Angeles to take on LMU in its final year of West Coast Conference play before joining the Big 12 in 2024. The weekend series with the Lions (7-7) is scheduled for March 16-18 at George C. Page Stadium.