WAC regular season baseball champion BYU begins its bid for an automatic NCAA berth Thursday, when the Cougars face fourth-place finisher Wyoming in the first round of the conference tournament.
The teams play at 7:30 p.m. MDT. San Diego State and Hawaii, the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds in the four-team tournament, meet at 11 p.m.All BYU games are scheduled to be aired on KSRR radio (1400-AM).
BYU, which finished 21-7 in league play and 45-10 overall, split a four-game series with Wyoming in Laramie in April. The Cowboys finished the league with a 17-10 mark, 36-19 overall.
For BYU, the tournament comes at an opportune time. The Cougars are coming off a four-game split with Wichita State, the No. 3-ranked team in the nation. The Cougars fell 8-6 and 16-15 before coming back to win a pair of 9-3 games.
"We are playing our best baseball right now," said Cougar Coach Gary Pullins. "We had a good showing at Wichita State, but we got off to a slow start. This team has to see a team play before it gets confidence. The playoffs should be a classic, because all four teams are in the hunt."
Darin Kracl (7-4, 5.66) will start for the Cougars. Star hurler John DeSilva (15-2, 3.36) will pitch on Friday.
Thursday losers will play at 4 p.m. Friday, with the winners meeting at 7:30 p.m.