When deciding which college to go to out of high school, pitcher Colter McAnelly originally committed to Missouri.
But the more he thought about it, the chance to move just 437 miles west of his hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and play for the University of Utah started to make more sense.
“I liked Utah because it was close to my home and I liked the coaches and I felt like they were going to make this program, just turn it around and make it a good program,” McAnelly said. “And I believe that the coaches have done that and very happy to be here.”
After a successful high school career that saw him ranked as the No. 1 player in Wyoming by Perfect Game, McAnelly arrived in Salt Lake City ready to contribute.
At first, he arrived with two pitches — a four-seam fastball and a traditional curveball. Working with Utes head coach Gary Henderson, a former pitcher himself and someone who has made multiple pitching coach stops in his lengthy career, helped him develop two more pitches.
“We added a changeup and we added a cut fastball, Henderson said. “He’s improved his ability to throw a two-seam pitch as well. So he’s got the ability to make the ball do different things, which is one of his strengths to go along with tremendous concentration.”
As expected with any freshman, there were growing moments in his first season of college baseball, like a game against Arizona State in which three straight Sun Devils homered off McAnelly to open the contest, one that Utah would ultimately come back and win.
His triumphs during his freshman season included moving into the “Sunday starter” role, holding opponents to a .239 batting average and striking out 45 batters — fourth on the team. He earned his first Pac-12 win against Washington, holding the Huskies to one run and three hits while walking just two.
He finished the season with a 5-4 record with a 4.76 ERA, earning rookie-of-the-year honors at Utah’s annual awards.
“I thought I grew a lot,” McAnelly said of his freshman season. “I developed a lot of pitches, I mean a few other pitches, but (Henderson) has definitely helped me develop a cutter, a two seam, a changeup.
“Kind of came in as a two-pitch guy for the most part. Those two pitches got me through high school pretty well, but as a freshman I learned that I needed those (other) pitches. And so yeah, I’ve been working day in and day out to make those pitches better.”
There’s often a talent bump from freshman to sophomore year, with a season of experience under the belt, and that’s what’s happened for McAnelly in 2025.
After a bit of a rough fall — “I was still hitting, I think I was taking some frustration from hitting over to pitching,” he said — McAnelly hit the ground running to start this season for the Utes.
The sophomore started the season with a six-inning stint at Pepperdine, surrendering just one earned run and four strikeouts. He followed that up with a seven-inning win at San Diego State, allowing no earned runs and striking out 10 batters.
“I felt electric and dugout energy was awesome. Yeah, offense was swinging it. It was a great game,” McAnelly said.
Those performances earned him back-to-back Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors.
“It felt good, but we’re not finished and we got room to improve and we’re going to grow and we’re going to love to compete as a team and yeah, we’re going to go win some more games,” McAnelly said.
Fueled in part by McAnelly’s pitching, Utah started the season 10-2, including another win for the sophomore against California Baptist.
Since then, however, Utah has lost seven of its last eight, including three straight in its Big 12 opener against Kansas State. McAnelly has lost two consecutive decisions — taking the loss in a 2-1 defeat against San Jose State despite striking out six — and allowing four earned runs in a 7-6 loss to Kansas State, while striking out seven.
Part of the losing streak is due to injuries on the team, but Utah knows it has to play better as it hits Big 12 play.
“I think we’re set up good. I think we went into this weekend not playing our best. We have plenty of talent on our team and I think we’re ready,” he said. “We love to compete and I know this team’s got it in them.”
After Utah’s series with Northern Colorado was canceled due to the snowstorm, Utah picks up Big 12 play — and opens the home conference season at Smith’s Ballpark — against Oklahoma State on Friday-Sunday.
“Well, we just had the one weekend (of Big 12 play), obviously the disappointing start, but we will learn as we go,” Henderson said. “This will be our first games against Oklahoma State. We’re playing here this weekend. So regardless of who we’re playing or even what conference we’re in, we got to play really good team defense.
“We got to do a much better job being efficient on the mound. We got to make sure that our two-strike approach stays strong. Big 12’s got outstanding baseball teams and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to compete in it.”
