OCR Text |
Show THE DAILY CHRONICLE UTAH Baseball Vies for MWG Lea Softball Faces First MWC Competition RORY BRUNNER Chronicle Asst. Sports Editor The University of Utah and San Diego State University baseball teams will battle for supremacy in the Mounseries tain West with a three-gam- e starting today. At 3 in conference (17-1- 3 overall), the Utes are one game ahead of the in the MWC. Aztecs (5-San Diego State had been the front-runn- With the Final Four and Major League Baseball's Opening Day commanding most of the nation's attention this weekend, the Utah Softball team will be making a pitch to defend its Mountain West Conference championship, as the Utes open conference play with double- -. headers against New Mexico and Colorado State. Utah coach Mona Stevens says that despite a mediocre preseason the Utes can still record of win the conference. "I tJbink we can," said Stevens. "It all depends on if we get our leadership stepping up a little bit and if the kids also believe that they can. It's just a matter of if we come to 6-- 16-1- 2) 4, er of the conference until its win streak was snapped in New Mexico last Saturday. The loss started an Aztec trend, as San Diego State enters tonight's 6 p.m. game on a e slide. Its most current loss came Wednesday in a 7 whupping by No. 10 USC, in which the Aztecs claimed only four hits. k Utah's setback is less impressive, as the U was hammered 8 by Mesa State before buffing up the defense in the second half of the for a 2 win. The bat of slugger Sam Swenson will be relied on this weekend, but if he performs in step with his execution so far this season, the Utes have nothing to worry about. Swenson is the statistical leader in batting average (.381), runs (34), hits (43), homers (9), total bases (86), slugging percentage (.761) and percentage (.478). Ryan Bailey has been the king of the hill for the Utes. Bailey, named MWC six-ga- three-gam- 16-- 18-1- mid-wee- 17-- er ' 6-- 11 show up to play, we are emotionally pretty set and we play together. When we do those things, we sure do a good job." New Mexico will be looking to start the season with a little payback for the Utes, as the Lobos finished second to Utah last year in both conference play and the conference tournament "I am sure that eats at them a little bit, and they sure would love to have a little bit of revenge here," Said Stevens. "So we have got a big target on our back when it comes to those guys. I know that they are going to want to come out of the chute and get us early." Today's doublcheader against the Lobos will be Utah's 34th and 35th consecutive road games. Meanwhile, Colorado State will play a doubleheader with Utah on Sunday, April 1. 5, play. "What is interesting is everybody has played so many different people..- It's going to be really interesting to see who does what " added Stevens. "None of us have played each other and none of us have played the same teams." With the conference season lasting just over one month, every game is increasingly significant, as the conference tournament begins on-ba- see BASEBALL, page the second week of May. Stevens thinks that her team's schedule against nationally-ranke- d opponents has prepared it to win the MWC for the second straight year "We have played the strongest schedule of anybody in our conference the most aggressive for sure," said Stevens. "If our kids RANDALL HARRINGTON Chronicle Sports Writer Some much-improv- ed pitching has Utah on top of the MWC (3-2- for now. AL: Yankees Will Be Challenged by Indians, As ERIC WALDEN Chronicle Sports Editor The New York Yankees were already the most storied franchise in all of professional sports, even before they won. the last three World Series titles and four of the last five overall. But with their success, there has also been a price: the perception that, so long as owner George Steinbrenner is willing to open up his wallet and general manager Brian Cashman is working the phones, the only way the other American League teams will get to the World Series is by buying tickets like the common fans. It's a difficult argument to refute. This offseason, the rich again got richer in successfully luring hurler Mike Mussina considered one of the better pitchers in the majors over the last decade into a pinstriped jersey. And while a similar contention could be made about the National League, with the es Atlanta Braves having qualified for the postseason every year for the past decade, at least the senior circuit gets to send a different representative to the Fall Classic every once in awhile, with teams like the Marlins, Padres and Mets making recent appearances. In the AL, you can pretty much resign yourself to seeing the Bronx Bombers playing for the title. Or at least you could. With Opening Day set for Sunday, the Yanks are still the prohibitive favorites to win it all, but at least this year they should have some competition. And while, in the end, no one may be able to unseat the most successful team in the majors, at the very least, the Yankees won't completely dominate the headlines no matter how many errors Chuck Knoblauch commits in left field. That being said, the following is an overview of what you can expect to transpire in the American League over a span of America's national pastime. 162-ga- AL East 1. New York Yankees Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill and Scott Bro-siall looked so old last year that retirement communities started mailing them literature, and cemeteries wanted to show them burial us plots. Needless to say, the team's offensive production was in serious decline. As all three are still around, and as golden boy shortstop Derek Jeter is going to be earning a big portion of his $189 million contract on the injured list, the pitching will be even more important. Fortunately, with a rotation that includes e Mussina, Cy Young winner Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Orlando "How old am I, really?" Hernandez, they're going to be competitive. True, the middle relief corps is sagging more than a septuagenarian's jowls, but having the best closer in baseball in Mari five-tim- ano Rivera helps make up for it. Ultimately, though, the best thing about New York's season is that, with Knobby manning left instead of second, Keith Olbermann's e side mom can feel safe sitting on the once again. 2. Boston Red Sox Well, let's see...Nomar needs surgery on his wrist, Manny needs to pick a position and stick with it, and Carl Everett needs some Ritalin and anger management counseling. It's a bit of a stretch to say that this team is in disarray, but with the AL's top batter possibly on the shelf for up to the next four months and Everett throwing a temper tantrum every time management asks him to do something so unreasonable as be on time for the team bus, they've got a bit of trouble. At least Pedro Martinez isn't causing any headaches...well, except to opposing batters, that is. With the newly expanded strike zone, ' expect the Dominican descendant of Cy Young to strike out everyone but his mother (though if she were to step into the batter's box...). Still, while he's in line to add some more personal hardware to his trophy case , he can still only pitch every fifth game. And in the meantime, they've got Frank Castillo making up the difference. 3. Toronto Blue Jays Carlos Delgado sure does smile a lot, doesn't he? And why not? He is making nearly $20 million per year. Of course, taking into account the Canadian exchange rate and the high taxes, he'll bring home considerably less than that. Uh-owe're down to a grin now. Utah vs at UNLV UNLV 330 330 Las Vegas, Nev. 1 . San Diego, Calif. CHRONICLE SPORTS EDITOR st Mike Sirotka. d smirk. Oh yeah, and they've got Homer Bush and his .270 percentage and Rau! Mondesi, who's never had a 100-Rseason, in the two and three holes. Quivering lip. Hey, did I mention that David Wells is gone? Quit crying, wouldja Carlos.. .you're making almost $20 mil per year. 4. Baltimore Orioles OK, I'll admit...they probably have loss talent than the Devil Rays, but I just have philosophical issues with putting a baseball team from Tampa Bay in any position other than last place. That, and I consider the retirement of Albert Belle to be addition by subtraction. That man's degenerative hip was second only to his degenerative lip. Having him "draw the remainder of his paycheck from the comfort of his own home is preferable for everyone involved especially those who had to sit next to him in the clubhouse lockcrroom. Oh sure, the O's will probably miss those home runs and RBI thingies he was pretty good at getting, but Delino DeShiclds, Dave Segui and Brooke Fordyce should be capable replacements, shouldn't they? I dunno...I take a look at this roster and all I A half-hearte- on-ba- se see AMERICAN, page h, BASEBALL UtaE W-TEN- NIS UtafT" first-bas- And then, let's not forget that his team's numpitching staff gave up the fourth-higheber of earned runs in the AL, and that was before they swapped David Wells for gimpy-arme- d ERIC "WALLY" WALDEN SOFTBALL Utah at at San Diego State New Mexico 330 1 p.m. 8 Albuquerque, N.M. 330-4- 1 San Diego, Calif. EWALDENCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU 581-704- 1 10 |