In Quest Of First Place

First place could be within reach of BYU's baseball team as it hosts the Air Force Academy in a three-game series starting Thursday.

The Cougars, 18-12 overall and in a tie for second place with a 5-4 record in the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars are tied with New Mexico with a 5-4 mark, while TCU and San Diego State are tied for first place with 6-3 league records.

While BYU hosts the Falcons, UNM is playing Utah in Ogden, SDSU hosts UNLV and TCU is playing a non-conference opponent this weekend.

The probable pitchers for BYU are Jeremy Toole (5-2, 3.74) and Blake Torgerson (3-2,6.92) in games Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. Cougar freshman Adam Miller (2-2, 4.50) will start Saturday's game at 1 p.m.

A couple of BYU seniors are starting to make some noise nationally. Kent Walton is batting .465 and ranks No. 5 in the nation in that category. Walton has a 16-game hitting streak. Teammate Jordan Muir has recorded seven saves, three away from breaking the school record set by Ryan Hancock in 1992.