Fresh off one of the most successful regular seasons in school history, Utah heads to the final Pac-12 baseball tournament needing a deep run to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016.
Twenty days ago, the Utes were nationally ranked — checking in at No. 25 in the D1baseball.com poll — marking the first time the program had been in the national polls, but since then, things have gone south. Following the sweep of the UCLA Bruins, which saw the Utes rise to unprecedented heights, Utah dropped two of three at No. 21 Oregon, then lost 11-8 at Utah Tech before losing another important Pac-12 series against Arziona.
“I mean, we had a tough weekend for sure, but I think it’s just a little hiccup in the road and it’s not who we are, and we can definitely just build off our super strong season that we had.”
— Utah infielder Core Jackson
While the Utes did beat Utah Tech 11-4 following the Arizona series, they were swept by USC in Los Angeles to end the regular season at 32-21 and 16-14 in conference play. The 32 wins was the most by a Utah team since 2002, and the 16 conference wins were the second-highest mark in Pac-12 play for the Utes, who were picked to finish 10th in the conference.
A 3-8 record in May, however, has thrown cold water on any NCAA tournament hopes from Gary Henderson’s club. The latest D1baseball.com bracketology doesn’t have the Utes in the field of 64 or among the first four teams out, and ditto for Baseball America’s projections.
That means the Utes have their work cut out for them as the Pac-12 tournament gets underway, starting with their fourth game in a row against the Trojans. There was only one game out of reach in the latest three-game series — USC won Friday’s game by an 8-2 score. The other two games there for the taking for Utah.
In Thursday’s contest, Utah held a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning, but reliever Randon Hostert allowed two hits and was pulled in favor of Micah Ashman. The Trojans scored four runs in the inning to take a 6-4 lead, and Utah scored one in the top of the ninth with two outs, but TJ Clarkson couldn’t bring in the tying run, grounding out to end the game.
In Saturday’s regular-season finale, the Trojans took an early 5-0 lead through five innings before the Utes made it a contest, scoring three runs over the sixth and seventh innings, but went down in order in the eighth and ninth innings.
“We walked them five times in three games, which is outstanding. We only struck them out 12, so they did a really good job of putting the ball in play mostly early in the count,” Henderson said. “They did a really good job of making contact, playing for a run. They opened the door for us a few times and we weren’t able to capitalize, and so we’ll have to do a better job in that regard.”
Even with the recent record, the general vibe around the team is still positive, and the chemistry that the team has shown throughout the year is still evident.
“We got good vibes. We just had a great practice and I think we’re all excited to get back after it, to get back to winning and then show the Pac-12 and everyone what we actually are about,” said junior infielder Core Jackson, who leads the team with a .364 batting average.
A strong ace in Bryson Van Sickle, who ranks No. 29 nationally in ERA with 2.78, a strong closer — Ashman, who ranks fourth in the country with 11 saves on the year, and a generally productive offense (7.1 runs per game) are all things Utah has going for it as it prepares for the Pac-12 tournament.
The Utes need a little bit more out of their non-Van Sickle starting pitching, and need to cash in with runners on base more than they have been doing in recent games.
“I mean, we had a tough weekend for sure, but I think it’s just a little hiccup in the road and it’s not who we are, and we can definitely just build off our super strong season that we had,” Jackson said. “I feel we played really well as a team and we played a really good season, and I think we can just look back on that and kind of forget about that USC series and move on from that, not let that dwell.”
The Pac-12 tournament begins Tuesday with pool play. Seventh-seeded Utah will play fourth-seeded USC on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. MDT, followed by third-seeded Oregon on Wednesday at the same time. The team with the most wins between the Ducks, Utes and Trojans in pool play will advance to the semifinal, along with the overall team with the best record that did not win their pool.
All games will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
