League Play Begins

League baseball play begins this Thursday as BYU starts a three-game series at the University of New Mexico.

UNM, 13-6, leads the conference at 3-0, having swept Air Force in the only Mountain West action thus far. BYU, 5-10, has yet to play a home game or an MWC contest.

The probable pitching rotation for BYU will be Jeff Mousser (3-0, 2.18) in Thursday's game which starts at 2 p.m. Friday's game is at the same time and Coach Vance Law is electing to start Paul Jacinto. Freshman southpaw Ken Gravley (1-1, 5.89) is expected to start Saturday's game at 1 p.m.

"It's tough to get a read on the conference as New Mexico and Utah have some good wins over tough opponents," said Law.

The UNM games mark the start of live radio broadcasts for BYU with veteran announcer Brent Norton calling the play-by-play. All of BYU's league games will be broadcast live over KOVO Radio (960 AM). Live coverage of this week's games will not be available on the Internet.

Shortstop Ranger Wiens continues to lead the Cougars with a .387 batting average. Jake Stubblefield has a nine-game hitting streak and is one behind Kainoa Obrey's team-leading four home runs.

Should outfielder Doug Jackson hit a triple this week, he will break the school career record. He hit his 18th triple last week at TCU.

The Cougars raised their batting average and lowered their earned run average in last week's three-game series at TCU. BYU beat TCU in the opener, 7-6, but lost in 10-innings, 3-2, and also suffered a 16-6 loss.

BYU's home season starts next week when it hosts UNLV in a three-game series.