Season Debuts At Portland

A senior-less BYU baseball team debuts this Friday in a three-game series at the University of Portland.

For the first time in over 50 years, the Cougars have no seniors on its squad which has six starters returning.

Juniors Jake Wortham, a lefty, and Jordan Muir will get the starting nod as BYU's pitchers in the first two games, with redshirt freshman Nelson Castleberry, a righthander, in game three. Wortham was 8-4 with a 4.43 ERA last season, while Muir was 6-4 with a 5.28 ERA.

"We are looking forward to being outside for the first time," said Coach Vance Law, now in his ninth season at the BYU helm. "We have a great indoor facility, but our guys are chomping at the bit to get outside. We don't have a lot of strong arms on our pitching staff, but we have more lefties than before and they know how to pitch and change spots."

Friday's game at Portland starts at 2 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader begins at 11 a.m., weather-permitting. All three games will be available on the through the Internet with livestats and live audio. Portland had a 21-30 record, including a split in two games with BYU last season.

The Cougars finish February with a four-game series next week at Gonzaga University in Washington.

BYU was picked second in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll and is hopeful of improving from a 37-20 record last season. The home season, which features a two-game series with two-time defending NCAA Champion Oregon State, begins on March 11 in a game with Utah Valley University.

For more information, please download the multi-page press release in the PDF at the top of this page.