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Show Busy week opens season Nearly 20 percent of the Southern Utah State College baseball season will be completed in a four day period beginning Thursday at Phoenix and ending Monday night in Cedar City. The Thunderbirds, ' !" bursting with optimism (tempered with reality) will meet Grand Canyon . ' " College twice Thursday and twice more Friday with games starting at 1 ' p.m. each day. Saturday at 11 a.m. the 'Birds will .challenge University of Wyoming in a single : game to be played on the Grand Canyon field. Monday it's back to Cedar City for the season's home opener, a doubleheader against the University of Utah. Those games start at noon on the Thunderbird field. "We're gonna' have a decent club, but we certainly have our work cut our for us," Hack Mitchell, SUSC's first-year first-year coach, says. "For example, we start the season with seven games against first rate competition com-petition in a period of just four days." Mitchell has his pit-ching pit-ching rotation established for the first five games. All five starters will be righthanders. Mark Johnson, a junior from Kearns, will open the first day, and Todd Mor-tensen, Mor-tensen, senior letterman from Sanford, Colo., will go in the second contest. Scott Bergerhouse, junior from Antioch, Calif., and Don Gubler, another senior let-terwinner let-terwinner from Santa Clara, will go in the two second-day games. Derron Gerrick, a sophomore transfer from Snow College will get the nod for the Wyoming game. Mitchell will determine after he evaluates the Phoenix performances and checks the condition of the staff's arms who will go against Utah in the Cedar City games. "We know that Grand Canyon is a tough team, and thf$ already have at least nine games under their belts; that means the first-game jitters are gone," Mitchell says. "I think their current record is 7-2. They have already won two of three from Utah and just Saturday they split a pair with BYU." The scouting report on the Antelopes says that traditionally, they have been as strong as any team in the NAIA. It also says, don't let the 'Lopes get a lead. They did just that in Saturday's second game against BYU and won by a wide margin. BYU soundly whipped the Grand Canyon nine in their first meeting. Last year, SUSC lost twice (13-1 and 10-3) to the Antelopes before winning in the third meeting (9-6). The T-Birds T-Birds did not meet Wyoming last season, but they did split two games with Utah, winning, 2-1, and losing, 2-1. Thursday's probable batting order will have Jeff DuMont, second baseman, leading off. He will be followed by centerfielder Curt Peterson, Peter-son, third baseman Pat Kilgore, and first baseman Russ Turner. Catcher Roger Farn-sworth Farn-sworth will probably go in the number five slot. The bottom half of the order will consist of right fielder Randy Poitevint, left fielder Jeff Rose, designated hitter Anthony Giron, and shortstop Frank Esposito. |