A non-league game on Tuesday at Utah precedes a three-game WAC series at No. 4 Rice this Thursday and Friday for BYU’s baseball team.

BYU, now 17-17 overall and 7-7 in the Western Athletic Conference, travels to Utah, 15-15 and 3-7, for a non-conference game at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at Franklin Covey Field in Salt Lake City.

The Cougars then fly to Rice, 32-7 and 12-3, for a Thursday game at 6 p.m. MDT and a doubleheader on Friday at 3:30 p.m. MDT.  Tuesday’s game at Utah will be broadcast live over KSRR Radio (1400 AM), Thursday’s game will be partially tape-delayed and the first game on Friday will be carried live.

“We are beginning a great series with Utah and each game will build interest,” says BYU Coach Gary Pullins.  “We will spar a bit at first, but the WAC games we play later with them may boil down to either of us getting in the WAC tournament.”

The Cougars are scheduled to start freshman Paul Jacinto (0-0, 8.59) against the Utes.  (Jacinto’s grandfather used to play for the Salt Lake Bees.)  BYU will use its normal pitching rotation at Rice with Micah Mangrum (3-3, 7.82), Curtis Rodriguez (3-4, 7.02) and Jordan Opdahl (2-4, 9.34). 

BYU leads in the series with Utah, 165-75-1, dating back to 1955. 

Rice has a 4-0 record over the Cougars, winning all three games at Houston last year and in the WAC Tournament at San Diego in 1997.

“We are trying to posture ourselves to play as good as we can at Rice so we can become better prepared to win games down the stretch in the WAC.  Rice is having an outstanding season and they are a credit to our conference.

“We have made nice progress through the first half of our season.  We are a lot better than people thought we would be, but I know we can become a lot better.

“TCU just outplayed us and they did an outstanding job with their pitching.  We had hoped to make better progress against TCU, because we knew this week with Utah and Rice would be tough.”

Weather claimed one game and TCU swept the Cougars in the other two games at Provo to break into the national rankings at 30th by Collegiate Baseball.  It marked the first time in 34 games  BYU has not had one of its players hit a home run in Provo, while TCU hit four of its five homers in the first game.  The Cougars did manage to hit 10 doubles in the two games, giving
them a 2.82 average for the season.       

After the Rice series, BYU returns to host Southern Utah in non-conference games on April 12-13 (Mon-Tues.)  and then hosts a three-game WAC series against San Diego State.  Those SDSU  games have been changed from original schedules and will be played April 15-16 (Thurs.-Fri.).  

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