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Show 8 SPORTS Thursday, April 16,2009 Thursday www.daifyutahchronicle.com Friday Baseball Softball Baseball Softball Utah @ BYU Utahvs.UNLV BYU § Utah Utah vs. San Diego State 6P.M.MTProvo 4 P.M. MTSLCC Softball Field 6 P.M. MT Spring Mobile Ballpark 3 P.M. MTSLCC Softball Field BASEBALL Keeping the faith Marco Villano TYLER COBB/7/if DailyUloh Chronicle The Utah baseball team is looking forward to its matchup against BYU on Friday after the team met over the weekend to get on an even plane. "It was a positive weekend even though we lost all three," said Ute STAFF WRITER pitcher Brian Budrow. "We got togethMany would think that a team that er and had a nice team meeting over has lost six straight games would lose the weekend, the team shared some thoughts together and I think we're on heart, but the Utes haven't. the same page now." The Ute baseball team (13-18, 3-9 A team meeting with no coaching MWC) is on a six-game slide, with a staff might be what the team needs. tough series ahead of them against rival As of right now, the Utes sit in BYU (20-15,7-5 MWC) starting tonight. second-to-last place in the Mountain Of those six losses, four were in West Conference, just ahead of Air extra innings, including three to New Force. When looking at their record, it Mexico last weekend. seems they aren't playing well. When Losses in that fashion could have looking between the lines, though, shut Utah down mentally, but instead, the team has banded together and is they have been in a lot of close games against some good teams. pushing for a run. "We know that we got a good team," said outfielder Nick Kuroczko. "Some people look at our record and.they don't see that. We've been playing a tough schedule this year and especially with ranked teams—we're right there with them/' The best team the Utes have faced this season is former No. 12 Texas A&M. The game was played at College Station, Texas, and Utah was able to pick up a win in the second game of the series. They were in thefinalgame of the series, but lost it in the bottom of the ninth, 12-11, a microcosm of their See BASEBALL Page 9 SOFTBALL Conference crunch time awaits Utes Paige Fieldsted STAFF WRITER The Utah women's softball team needs a conference win. With UNLV and San Diego State coming to town, the Utes know their postseason hopes could live or die this weekend. That is, if Mother Nature allows it. The game is still in question, if snow flurries, which are expected for Thursday afternoon, hold true. "It's pretty important that we win these games so we have a chance at the postseason," said senior shortstop Sharee Fonoti. "We've got to go all out and bring our game to get some wins." Although the Utes know that getting wins this weekend is critical, that hasn't been what they've been talking about in practice this week. "I didn't talk to my team about winning," said head coach Amy Hogue. "I didn't even talk to my team about hitting for average. All we talked about is doing the little things better." For the Utes, doing the little things better entails going back to the basics and focusing on the fundamentalsthings like footwork, coverage and hitting. "We pretty much ran a clinic today. We did bunt coverage and footwork with no glove on," Hogue said after practice Monday. "We went back to square one to really just get the team back to doing the little things well, and we ran one of the best practices we've had all year. Today, we did all defense and tomorrow we'll do the same thing with hitting." Utah is returning to the fundamentals after putting too much focus on coming out and showing the Mountain West Conference what it is made of. Looking at the big picture is what caused the Utes to lose sight of the little things that really matter, Hogue said. "We tried to look too big and are getting beat on some of the little things, like throwing strikes and getting outs when they give us outs on sacrifice bunts, and catching and throwing," Hogue said. "The little things in the game are starting to beat us and we're not willing to let that happen anymore." In addition to doing all the little things necessary to get a win, the Utes are putting their focus on thefirstfew innings of the game and coming out strong. Utah is 3-18 on the season when giving up the first run to its opponent and the Utes know they have to put up strong performances in the first couple of innings if they want to win this weekend. "We are letting the first inning get away from us and then we're chasing somebody again. Our win-loss record when we're losing after the first isn't great," Hogue said. "We're going to do the little things well in the first inning and go from there." Despite getting clobbered by BYU last weekend, the Utes haven't lost their confidence, but know that it is going to take a total team effort to get wins this weekend. "It's going to take all of us coming together, pitching and defense and hitting," Fonoti said. "We've got nothing to lose—we just have to come out strong and play our game." Utah begins today with a matchup against UNLV at 4 p.m., and the game will be televised on CBS College Sports. The Utes will then face San Diego State in games both Friday and Saturday. Friday's game will begin at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Mtn. and Saturday's game will start at 1 p.m. All three games will be played on Ute Field, weather permitting. p.fieldsted@chronicle.utah.edu RICHARD PAVSOU/The Daily UiohCkrotiidt After suffering a series of losses in conference play the Ute softball team needs a win to have a chance to reach the postseason. VOLLEYBALL Launiere leads Utes from snow to the beach Paige Fieldsted STAFF WRITER * The Utah women's volleyball team is getting out of the snow and heading to the beach. The Utes have been invited to compete in the fourth annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship in Riverside, Calif., along with seven other top programs from around the country. "It shows that we are considered one of the top teams in the country," said head coach Beth Launiere. "It's a reward for our team to be able to be in this position, to get the chance to play against other top teams in the country in the spring—it's an experience valuable to our players' development." Although playing in the sand is a lot different from playing on a gym floor, Launiere said beach volleyball improves indoor play on many different levels. The difficulty of running and jumping in sand makes it great for conditioning, while ball control and reading skills on defense have to improve because it's harder to move quickly in the sand. Increasing understanding of the game and improving mental toughness are also advantages to playing on the sand. "There are just the two of you out there, sometimes without coaches, and the players have to figure out ways to win," Launiere said. "Your weaknesses get exposed more easily, so mentally you've got to be able to handle the pressure of just you and another player." The Utes took advantage of some of last week's nice weather and the weekend in Santa Barbara, Calif., to get in some playing time in the sand. Although the team has only played in the sand four times, Launiere said her team has improved a lot during the course of a week and is ready for the tournament. "I think we are as prepared as we can be and they've gotten a ton better in a week," she said. "We'll go compete—it's not life or death—but we'll go down there and compete and just have See VOLLEYBALL Page 9 TYLER COBWrbtOoltyUtahOitonkle Coach Beth Launiere and the Utah volleyball team are heading to Riverside, Calif., to compete in the fourth annual Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship. |