This weekend, Stanford baseball will take on the Utah Utes on the road in Salt Lake City. Stanford comes in at 10-11 overall and 3-3 in the Pac-12 while Utah comes in at 16-7 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-12.
Game one will be on Thursday at 6:30 PM PT. Game two will be on Friday at 1:00 PM PT. Game three will be on Saturday at 12:00 PM PT. All three games will air on Utah Live Stream and KZSU radio.
Last time out: On Monday, Stanford defeated Creighton 6-3 at home to avoid the sweep.
RECAP: Stanford BSB picks up Monday win to avoid sweep against Creighton
Probable pitchers: On Thursday, Stanford sophomore righty Nick Dugan (3-1, 6.75 ERA, 26K) will get the start against Utah sophomore righty Merit Jones (1-1, 4.20 ERA, 30K).
On Friday, Stanford sophomore righty Matt Scott (2-4, 3.75 ERA, 50K) will get the start against Utah redshirt senior lefty Bryson Van Sickle (0-0, 2.25 ERA, 22K).
On Saturday, Stanford freshman lefty Christian Lim (2-2, 3.03 ERA, 41K) will get the start against Utah senior righty Brett Porthan (1-0, 6.43 ERA, 18K).
On Utah: The Utes are having an improved season from last year. They most recently took two out of three on the road at Cal and also were able to pick up a win at home against No. 3 Oregon State. In their opening Pac-12 series, the took two out of three against Washington State.
Senior outfielder Kai Roberts is the top contact and power hitter for the Utes, batting .367 for five home runs and 25 RBIs to go along with a .689 slugging percentage and a .464 on base percentage.
The number two contact and power hitter on the team is junior infielder Drake Digiorno, who is batting .333 for three home runs and 15 RBIs to go along with a .560 slugging percentage and a .438 on base percentage.
As a team, Utah is hitting .268 for 15 home runs, 133 RBIs, and 150 runs. They also have a .406 slugging percentage and a .370 on base percentage. Their opponents are batting .263 for 17 home runs, 104 RBIs, and 105 runs. Their opponents also have a .390 slugging percentage and a .343 on base percentage. As for pitching, the Utes have a 4.34 ERA while their opponents have a 5.32 ERA.
Keys to the series: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is give their pitchers run support. This is like a REALLY simple key to the game, but this has been a problem for Stanford as of late. Their pitchers have been doing fine overall, but it’s been the run support that has been sketchy. If Stanford can get even five runs in a game, that could be enough.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is not allow Utah to score any non-RBI runs. As you can tell from the stats, the Utes get a decent amount of runs from non-RBIs. Runs off wild pitches and walked batters. That sort of thing. If Stanford makes sure Utah doesn’t get any non-RBI runs, that’ll go along ways towards winning the series.
Finally, Stanford needs to shore up their defense in the infield. The outfield has been doing well from what I can tell, but the infield at times makes costly errors. With the weather chilly in Salt Lake City this weekend, Stanford should expect a lot of ground balls to come their way. They gotta make sure their infield defense is tight and does their job.
Prediction: Utah should be favored to win the series. They’re playing better as of late. I’m going to pick Utah to win two out of three games. Stanford won’t get swept, but I can’t pick them to win the series.
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