Non-League Tilt With Utes Starts Week

A non-league game with Utah and a three-game conference series with New Mexico will be hosted by BYU’s baseball team starting Tuesday.

Cougar freshman Desmond Poulson (3-0, 6.46) will face Utah senior Stephen Streich (0-1, 7.16) on the mound in Tuesday’s game televised live by BYUtv at 6 p.m. Utah has a 16-13 overall record and moved into second place in the Mountain West Conference at 9-4. BYU is 18-14 overall and 6-5 in the MWC.

For the fourth time in over 50 years, BYU has a non-league game with Utah. Utah won the past three 9-7 in 2008, 8-4 in 2007 and 5-4 in 2006. Next season several non-league games are on tap for BYU vs. Utah.

“Every game is critical this week,” said BYU coach Vance Law. “We are facing a tough Utah team and I won’t discount it because it is non-conference, it’s still Utah. We need to move in the league standings and New Mexico isn’t happy they were swept by Utah. Plus we are dealing with final exams and graduation.”

Four current players including Ryan Bernal, Andrew Law Andrew, Jared Miller and Blake Torgerson are graduating this week. Four former BYU baseball players are also graduating, Sean McNaughton, Brandon Michon, Brandon Relf and Kevin Sloan.

The first two games against New Mexico, 10-27 and 5-7, on Thursday and Friday will also be at 6 p.m., at Miller Park with sophomore righthanders Taylor Cole (3-2, 2.86) and Chris Capper (3-2, 3.62) starting as BYU’s pitchers, respectively. Saturday’s BYU-UNM game stars at 1 p.m.

BYU has clinched the overall Deseret Duel Trophy for the third time, but the baseball portion of the Duel is still in question. Utah’s baseball team holds a 2-1 advantage going into next week’s non-league game on Tuesday in Provo. The Utes have a 26-18 advantage in the run differential, which could play a factor if the two teams tie--the remaining game is worth 1.5 points. Currently BYU leads in the overall Duel points, 29.5 to 22.