After beating up on most of their Wester Athletic conference opponents all season, the Utah and BYU baseball teams will be sailng in uncharted waters when they play their first-round games at the WAC basball tournament in San Diego Wednesday.
The Courgars will be facing Rice university for the first time ever, while Utah will be playing Fresno State for the first time in several years. The BYU-Rice game is set for noon (MDT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium, while the Utah-Fresno State game will follow at 4 p.m. (MDT) in the six-team double-elinimation tournament.Even though his team has made the WAC baseball tournament every year by one since 1976, BYU coach Gary Pullins is still thrilled to be participating in this year's new six-team WAC tourney.
"This is an exciting thing," he said. "I'm really glad we have the expanded format because we're a second-place team and would be turning in our uniforms right now otherwise. It's a great format, the venue is outstanding - I can't see why any participant wouldn't be really excited to go into San Diego to play."
In other words, Pullins seems just happy to be in the tourney and isn't worrying about the fact that he has to play the tourney's No.1 seed and 13th-ranked team in the country.
Utah, under first-year coach Tim Esmay, is also happy to be in the WAC tournament, a rare occurence for the Utes in recent years (three times in the last 35 years). The Utes won the Northern Division with a 22-8 record, but could only manage a No. 4 seed.
Esmay is expecting Fresno State to play "typical California baseball."
"They'll but a lot, make you play defense and rely on their pitching," said Esmay. "We're not going to change what got us here. We'll steal bases, be aggressive and hit the ball. We have seven or eight guys that can hurt you in a big way."
The Utes led the WAC in home runs this year with 121. Casey Child led the way with 31, followed by Scott Pratt with 18 and Curtis Hall with 17. Other sluggers on the team include Mike Heidemann, Dusty Atkinson, Nate Forbush, Matt Eeeles and Brandon Flint.
However the key for Utah could be its pitching.
The Ute pitchers' ERA is much higher than Fresno State's, but a lot of that has to do with the h igher altitude and style of play in the Northern Division. Esmay was still trying to decide Monday between three pitchers, Sean Cawley, Rick Clagett and Lance Ericksen.
The Bulldogs will counter with either Adam Pettyjohn or Jeff Weaver, who rank fourth and sixth, respectively, in the WAC in ERA.
BYU will need improved pitching after giving up 44 runs in three games at home to Utah last weekend. Jeff Stone, Shane bloomfield or Micah Mangrum are the most likely pitchers on Wednesday.
D.G. Nelson, who went wild with six home runs in the three-game series with Utah, leads the Cougar hitters. Other top batters for the WAC's leading hitting squad are David Decker, Matt Stringham, Tyson DowDell, Troy Farnsworth, Brad Winget and Spencer Oborn.
Rice is led by Lance Berkman, who led the WAC in hitting (.432) and home runs (32).
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.
Because the tournament is a double-elimination affair, every team will play at least two games. Three games are scheduled Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the finals set for 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.