Hoping to strengthen its hold on first place, BYU's baseball team will meet Utah tonight at Franklin Quest Field.
The Cougars, 25-16 overall and 12-6 in league play, hold a 21/2-game lead over second-place Wyoming in the Eastern Division of the Western Athletic Conference. New Mexico is in third place, three games back.The Utes, 20-26/7-9, are in fourth place, four games behind the Cougs.
The Cougars, who have five WAC games remaining, have beaten the Utes in three of their four meetings so far this season, their lone loss being a 13-inning marathon at Franklin Quest Field.
They will play again tonight at 7 p.m., then again on Tuesday afternoon (at 2) at Ute Field.
The series will feature two of the nation's top sluggers in Utah's Shane Jones and BYU's Ryan Hall. Jones leads the nation in home runs, with 23; Hall has 21 homers and is hitting .461. He is chasing Dane Iorg's school record batting average of .467.
BYU shortstop Eric McDowell hit grand slams on back-to-back days last weekend.