Hot Hitters Head to San Jose

PROVO, Utah--(Feb. 22, 2005) Fresh off a two-game split with the No. 18 UC Irvine Anteaters, BYU heads to San Jose State for a three-game series with the Spartans beginning Thursday.

The Cougars (1-1) will try to continue swinging hot bats against the Spartans (3-4). Game times are 6 p.m. (PST) on Thursday and Friday with a noon start on Saturday. None of the games will be carried via the Internet.

After an impressive debut, junior Dave Horlacher (1-0, 1.80 ERA) will make his second division one start Thursday. Lefty Patrick Wells (0-1, 8.31) is expected to start Friday and junior college transfer Brandon Christiansen (0-0, 0.00) will make his Cougar pitching debut Saturday.

BYU head coach Vance Law is cautiously optimistic after the first weekend of the season.

"I wanted to go out with the attitude that we would win games and not just show up at the ballpark," he said.

The Cougars did show up, blasting 30 hits in two games against a good UC Irvine pitching team. BYU heads into the San Jose batting .357 in the early season while holding its opponents to a .269 average.

"I thought we hit the ball very well," Law said. "My biggest concern is whether we would compete and I think we did."

Although the Cougars split the series and looked very good against UC Irvine, they still hope to improve against the Spartans.

"We are still in a finding-out-about-ourselves mode," Law said. "I can't tell exactly where we are after just one weekend."

BYU flies out Thursday morning for the evening game.

A multi-page release can be found by downloading the PDF file at the top of this story, which gives a detailed analysis of the Cougars.