The Utah and BYU baseball teams received their seeds Sunday for this week's Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament and weren't exactly thrilled with their positions.
The Utes, who wrapped up their first WAC division title in 32 years Saturday with a win over the Cougars, will be the fourth seed in the six-team tournament, while BYU is the sixth seed.BYU will meet top-seeded Rice in the first game of the tournament at 11 a.m. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Cougars and Owls, who were ranked 13th in the nation in the latest Collegiate Baseball Poll.
Utah plays in the second game at 3 p.m. against Fresno State, which was ranked for much of the season. The Utes and Bulldogs didn't play this year.
Ute coach Tim Esmay was disappointed in his team's seeding, expecting to be a No. 2 or No. 3 seed. The Utes finished with a 22-8 league mark, the best in the conference, while BYU was just a game back at 21-9.
"I think that shows what people think about Northern Division baseball," said Esmay. "We had the best record in the WAC and deserve better than the fourth seed. And for BYU to have the sixth seed? Come on. We'll just look at it as a challenge to show that we do play baseball in the north."
The third game will pit host San Diego State as the No. 5 seed against San Jose State, ranked No. 22 in the nation, as the No. 2 seed at 7 p.m.
The tournament is a double-elimination affair, so every team will play at least two games. Three games are scheduled for the first three days with the finals set for 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.