Utah's 3-1 baseball victory over BYU on Wednesday left more questions than answers.
"Why doesn't Utah play against the other guys like they play against us?" BYU coach Gary Pullins asked. "I've watched them play Wyoming, and they play like a junior-college team."Oddly enough, Utah coach Rick Sofield was wondering the same thing after the win at Derks Field. "If we could play the rest of the conference as well as we play BYU . . ."
What he might as well be saying, though, is: "If Guy Fowlks could pitch against the rest of the conference as well as he pitches against BYU . . . " Because Fowlks once again dominated the Cougar hitters. The pudgy righthander from West Jordan limited BYU to seven hits over 81/3 innings, giving up one run on a second-inning homer by Geoff Clark.
And that's from a pitcher that Sofield said he wrote off after he returned from an LDS mission. "I was wrong about Guy Fowlks," the coach said. "He's a BYU killer."
Supposedly a flyball pitcher, Fowlks registered 14 ground-ball outs. Until the eighth inning, the Cougs had only two flyball outs. Sofield said Fowlks benefited from a scouting report that showed the BYU lineup susceptible to pitches low and away. "That's their weakness," the coach said.
Fowlks also got a lot of help from his fielders, who made some slick plays, including a controversial double play in the fifth inning. With Clark on first and no outs, Eric Larsen hit a soft liner near second base. Ute second baseman Marc Benjamin appeared to intentionally drop the ball, stepped on second to force Clark, then fired to first for the second out. Pullins argued vehemently that Benjamin had intentionally grounded the ball, which is illegal, but the umps figured otherwise, and who's ever won an argument with an umpire?
By game's end, Pullins was worried about more than that call. "We had a good game played by some people, and we had a very, very mediocre game played by a lot of people. We won't tolerate that. We're probably going to make some lineup changes."
Sofield might be able to tell Pullins something about lineup changes. He tried a few himself, loading the top of his lineup with lefties against BYU righty Mike Nielsen, but it wasn't outrageously successful. The 1-2-3 combination of Scott Wilberger, Jeremy Chiles and Gary Ogden was a combined 2-for-10, both hits coming from Ogden. Benjamin, the usual leadoff hitter, was 2-for-3, batting in the No. 7 spot.
That tactic flopped, but it didn't matter. The Utes got all the runs they needed on a two-run homer to center by Shane Jones in the first inning. Their other run came in the fourth, when Jones singled, McCraney doubled, and Benjamin knocked in Jones with an infield out. The Utes managed just seven hits against a trio of BYU pitchers, but they were timely hits.
So while Sofield may not be able to figure out his team's inability to play Wyoming, or anybody else but BYU (16-11 overall, 3-4 WAC), for now he can be content with a 2-2 split of the season series with the Cougars and another WAC win that puts the Utes at 2-6 in league play, 7-23 overall. That hardly seems like the record of a Western Athletic Conference contender, but Sofield figures the toughest part of the schedule is over.
"We've really got a legitimate shot at this thing," he said.
Now, if only they could play all their games against BYU.
The Utes next play Northern Colorado on Saturday at Derks (2 p.m.), followed by a doubleheader against the same opponents on Sunday at noon. BYU returns to Cougar Field, where it will face WAC foe Colorado State in Friday and Saturday doubleheaders, beginning at noon both days.