Rivalry Resumes With Utes

Coming off a thrilling weekend of baseball, BYU will look to stay atop the Mountain West Conference standings as it takes to the road to play instate rival Utah.

The Cougars, now 26-10-1 (12-3, Mountain West Conference), went 3-1 last week. Two of their three victories were come-from-behind wins over San Diego State, including Friday night's thriller that BYU won with a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth.

BYU Coach Vance Law learned earlier this week that freshman second baseman Sean McNaughton will be sidelined for a couple weeks because of a broken thumb suffered in last Saturday's game.

This Thursday's BYU starting pitcher is Dave Horlacher (3-2, 3.60) and Brandon Christiansen (3-0, 4.22) will take the hill on Friday for the Cougars. Freshman Blake Torgerson (4-2, 6.13) is likely to start on Saturday.

Thursday and Friday's games at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City will start at 6 p.m. Saturday's game will start at noon. All of the games will be broadcast on KOVO Radio 960 AM and KFNZ Radio 1280 AM as well as live via the Internet through links on www.byucougars.com.

The Cougars are ranked now ranked second in the nation in doubles, third in slugging percentage, fourth in home runs and fifth in batting average, according to the latest NCAA statistics.

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.