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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday April 22, 2014 UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS www.dailyutahchronicle.com SOFTBALL Utes dominate in doubleheader TODAY: Baseball Utah @ UVU Dominic Garcia 6:00 p.m. Orem STAFF WRITER Softball Utah vs. SUU 2:00 p.m. Utah Softball Stadium Softball Utah vs. SUU 4:30 p.m. Utah Softball Stadium PAC-12 STANDINGS SOFTBALL TEAM CONF OVERALL Oregon 14-1 40-5 UCLA 12-3 39-4 Arizona St. 13-4 39-7 Arizona 9-6 34-9 Washington 5-8 25-12 Cal 4-9 22-20 Utah 5-12 20-20 Stanford 3-12 26-18 Oregon St. 3-13 13-26 ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle BASEBALL Kristen Stewart up to bat at the Utah Softball Stadium. Utah continued its strong hitting streak against UVU in a doubleheader at home Monday. The Utes took both games in dominating fashion, winning the first one 14-4 and the second 12-3. Both were called early. Junior Mariah Ramirez led Utah with five combined RBIs in the two games. "We hit great today," said head coach Amy Hogue. "We were patient, drew some walks and got some big hits. That's the reason why we put up such big numbers." Coming into the day hot at the plate, the Utes' 26 combined runs caused their average over the past seven contests to skyrocket to more than io. Only one of those resulted in a loss. "We are making sure that we hit our pitch," Ramirez said. "Just being consistent at the plate, not swinging at balls." Hogue has always known that Ramirez, who batted in four runs in Monday's first game, is a strong hitter, and Hogue is not surprised that she is doing so well. "When she is selective, she is one of the best hitters we've got," Hogue said. "She is one of those that goes to the game instead of letting the game come to her. She is maturing in the game and learning what pitches are her best pitches." The rest of the team had a great day at the plate as well. Junior Shelby Pacheco hit a homer over left center field to bring in two RBIs in the second inning of game one. She added two more RBIs in the fourth as Utah scored seven times in that frame. "We're having longer at-bats and seeing more pitches, and it has made us better hitters," Hogue said. "We have been patient in waiting for our very favorite pitch, and then we don't let that pitch go, we whack that one." Sophomore Kayce Nieto pitched four innings in game one and averaged one strikeout per inning. Freshman Sammy Cordova closed out the game in the fifth and recorded one strikeout. Game two saw the same fate as game one. Cordova added five more strikeouts, and Ramirez came in and closed out the game. A five-run second inning separated Utah from the Wolverines, and the Utes held the lead for the rest of the game. Both Hogue and Ramirez hope to continue producing the high amount of runs that they have been recently. Hogue also wants to focus on getting the defense to be just as strong, too. "Defensively, we are due to shut down some teams in the early innings and have someone chase us a little bit," Hogue said. "That's one of the things that is on the list of our things we want to get better at." Utah will have another double-header at home today against SUU. The first game will start at 2 p.m., and the second will start at 4:3o p.m. d.garcia@chronicle.utah.edu Utah hopes to 'get back on track,' defeat UVU Ian Smith STAFF WRITER CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Max Schuman up to bat during the Utah's game against Arizona on April 4 at Smith's Ballpark. COLUMN A big week awaits Utah, as a number of important games are coming up on the schedule. The Utes will take a break from conference play when they travel to Orem to take on UVU tonight. Utah has already defeated the Wolverines once this season by a score of 7-3 back on March 18. That win could not have come at a better time of the season, as the Utes had dropped four games in a row prior to that matchup. After a test from UVU, Utah will host a four-game series against Nevada over the weekend, including a doubleheader on Saturday, making it a total of five games this week for the Utes. Head coach Bill Kinneberg stressed how important these non-conference games can be for the team's momentum and success for the rest of the season. "This is going to be an interesting week for us, because we have five games, and we're going to be taxing our pitching staff a little," he said in a press release. "It's important for us to play well in these non-conference games and get back on track. This is a huge week for us." Kinneberg said that in order to pick up a mid-week victory at UVU, Utah has to play well in all aspects of the game. "Play a complete game," he said. "We're going to have to play defense, we're going to have to pitch well, and we're going to have to hit. Timely hitting. It's all about that this time of year." "Timely hitting" has been almost nonexistent for Utah lately as they are again struggling to score runs. However, the team did show signs of what it's capable of doing when it recorded a season-high amount of hits in Friday's game against UCLA with 16. The players know they are struggling at the plate and realize where work needs to be done in their game. Sophomore infielder Cody Scaggari hopes the recent emphasis on hitting will help the team get to where it wants to be. "I'm thinking just hit," he said. "That's what we need to work on. That's where we need to focus. Keep pounding away in the cages and hopefully come out swinging strong." Freshman outfielder Max Schuman said he wants the team to be more balanced. Looking back at the UCLA game from Saturday, Schuman said the energy in the final game wasn't where it was earlier in the series and staying at that high-energy level is crucial to getting wins. See BASEBALL page 8 TRACK & FIELD #ShockStanford one of Breaking records makes rivals on team many notable highlights Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER RYAN MCDONALD Sports Editor T oday is my last day working for The Daily Utah Chronicle, and since I'm kind of a reflective guy, I've been taking a trip down memory lane thinking about all of the incredible experiences I've had while covering Ute sports over the past three years. Here are the top five moments/experiences I'll always remember about covering Dear Old Crimson: 5. #ShockStanford: Even though Utah struggled throughout the rest of the 2013 campaign after upsetting No. 5 Stanford last October, it was still a blast to see the Utes finally get a signature victory in the Pac-12 on the gridiron. Kyle Whittingham's bunch had started to get some flack for not beating a top-tier team since joining the Conference of Champions, but this silenced the critics, at least for a little bit. I'll always remember the incredible atmosphere in Rice-Eccles Stadium as it became apparent Utah was going to come out on top. 4. The Red Rocks: I started out at this place in August 2011 as a part-time reporter, writing one to two stories per week. I'll never forget the excitement when my editors asked me if I'd be willing to cover the gymnastics team in the spring of 2012. I had grown up knowing how good the team is, and I was elated that I'd be able to get to know coaching legends Greg and Megan Marsden. That spring was a blast, but it's been even more fun since to follow the team. The Marsdens are incredible people, See MCDONALD page 8 On April 4, Utah's Rebekah Winterton broke the school record in the 5,000-meter run. That mark lasted two weeks. Susannah Hurst took down her teammate's record with a time of 16:06.31 to finish fifth in the 5,000-meter at the Mt. Sac Relays over the weekend. Hurst's performance was part of a successfully busy weekend for the Utes as they set three new school records over the course of two competitions. "We had some terrific performances," said head coach Kyle Kepler. "Up and down the lineup and everywhere you looked, if it wasn't [personal records] or school records, we were still competing at a very high level." Winterton started off the cornpetitions by setting a new school standard in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday, going 33:28.43 and finishing third. The next night, she watched Hurst take the 5,000-meter record from her. With Hurst besting her team- ._„. BRENT UBERTY/The Daily Utah Chronicle Rebekah Winterton leads the pack at the Utah Spring Classic on April 11. mate's mark, a rivalry has been born on the track. "I was so happy for her," Winterton said. "I am just grateful that I have someone to work with. The record was cool while it lasted, and it was nice I got a replacement record." In fact, according to Kepler, it wasn't a jealous or bitter moment for Winterton but a "special" one. "Those two train together, so I think that was a special deal for them," Kepler said. "Susannah had no bigger supporter that night than Rebekah. They are See TRACK page 7 |