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Show 6 Thursday March 22, 2012 SPORTS Spring skiing conditions TODAY'S SKI REPORT 27° / 9 a.m. 45° / 3 p.m. Alta www.dailyutahchronicle.cor Brighton UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS 27° / 9 a.m. 45° / 3 p.m. ► conditions & weather from utahskiweather.com Canyons 32° / 9 a.m. 51° / 3 p.m. a.m. Deer Valley 32° 510 // 39 p.m. Snowbird 27° / 9 a.m. 45° / 3 p.m. 28° / 9 a.m. 46° / 3 p.m. Solitude BASEL TODAY: Golf Utah @ Barona Collegiate Cup TBA San Diego, Calif. Swimming & Diving Utah @ NCAA Men's Championship All Day Federal Way, Wash. FRIDAY: Baseball Utah @ Oregon 6 p.m. Eugene, Ore. Softball Utah @ Oregon 6 p.m. Seattle, Wash Women's Tennis Utah vs. USC 1:30 p.m. Eccles Tennis Center Track & Field Utah @ Arizona State Invitational 5:00 p.m Phoenix, Ariz. Golf Utah @ Barona Collegiate Cup TBA San Diego, Calif TOP 25 SOFTBALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 T17 T17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Alabama (28) California (2) Washington Florida Arizona State Texas Oklahoma Louisiana-Lafayette Stanford Missouri Georgia Tennessee Louisville Arizona Baylor UCLA Hawaii Oregon Texas A&M Michigan Auburn South Florida Florida State North Carolina DePaul 25-0 25-1 27-1 26-2 28-3 23-2 24-3 26-0 25-3 20-3 23-5 19-6 22-0 18-4 21-6 20-6 18-4 24-2 20-8 17-9 23-6 24-5 23-5 21-8 15-7 TODD HOOPER/The Daily Utah Chronicle Opportunities arise for upcoming player DA STAR SURFACES Junior college transfer fills in for the Utes' open position for catcher and meshes perfectly with the team Parker Lee STAFF WRITER When Utah catcher Parker Morin was abusing high school pitchers at Park City High School, he had a goal that many high school players have but few achieve. Mo- rin wanted to play college baseball. Playing for Utah was not something Morin thought about, but after starting his collegiate career at the College of Southern Idaho, here he is, starting behind the plate for the Utes. "I came to the camps here and things like that, but they seemed pretty set at catcher," Morin said. "After my freshman year at CSI, this opportunity came up. It was out of the blue, which was pretty cool." The Utes had two catchers last season, Cody Guymon and Jo Jo Sharrar. With Guymon graduating, Utah coach Bill Kinneberg knew he needed to find a replacement. He See MORIN Page 8 PARKER MORIN Utes drop lopsided home opener Bubba Brown STAFF WRITER TODD HOOPER The Daily Utah Chronicle Last night's home opener against Sacramento State carried an all too familiar feeling for the Utes. Surrounded by the warm contours of Spring Mobile Ballpark, the game unfolded like many of the Utah's losses this season as the Utes fell behind early and didn't have enough offensive firepower to recover, which led to a 6-2 loss. The Utes took two of three from USC last weekend, a result that had head coach Bill Hunter Greenwood pitched the entire game for Sacramento State Wednesday night at Spring Mobile ballpark. His five strikeouts helped defeat the Utes 6-2. Kinneberg believing that his team had made progress toward playing more consistently. Given their success against the Trojans, last night's loss was a small setback for the Utes, who have been plagued by a sporadic offense and are trying to pick up steam following a slow start to the season. Utah allowed Sacramento State pitcher Hunter Greenwood to hurl a complete game as they tallied just three hits in the process, which was the latest in a string of poor offensive See OPENER Page 7 FOOTBALL Utes beat T-birds in no-contest doubleheader Derek Siddoway STAFF WRITER Utah head coach Amy Hogue stressed the importance of a solid hitting game going into yesterday's doubleheader against SUU. Her team fulfilled the wish with 8-3 and 18-2 victories over the Thunderbirds. After jumping to an 8-i lead in the first game, the Utes cooled off offensively and produced no runs after the fourth inning of play. Freshman Mariah Ramirez took over pitching duties from star Generra Nielson in the fifth and allowed only two runs. Despite an impressive win, the Utes stayed focused heading into game two. "The thing I told the girls after game one was there's nothing that the other team wants more right now than to start over with an opportunity to get a lead on you," Hogue said. "You have to erase [the first game] whether it's good or bad. You have to have a blank mind." Based on Hogue's advice, Utah must have created a serious case of amnesia. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Utes made it clear from the get-go that the Thunderbirds would be returning home without a win. Utah dominated the Thunderbirds Spring play addiction is illogical JAKE BULLINGER Sports Editor T Utes had already built a io-o lead off just II hits. "I think we were swinging loose [in the second game]," Hoopiiaina, who registered three homers on the day. We weren't trying to kill it, we were hroughout the next few weeks, something dark will dampen the normally bright mood of spring. It will emit a stench that overpowers blooming spring flowers. Even March Madness will be adversely affected by it. Its presence will pollute sports sections across the country, including this one. The demon at hand: spring football. If there's any indicator of how powerful college football is — and how gluttonous its fans are — it is the spring practices that will happen throughout the next few weeks across the country. People seem to forget exactly what spring football is, and how it has little bearing on the product we'll see next season. All in all, it's just an addiction. Junkies need one more hit. Alcoholics need one more drink. Football fans just need a little spring, and their deadly overdose comes with See SUU Page 7 See CHRISTOPHER REEVES/The Daily Utah Chronicle Utah senior Generra Nielson became the first Ute softball player to earn Pitcher of the Week from the Pac12 Conference. The Utes defeated SUU on Wednesday in both games of a double header, 8-3 and 18-2. early, jumping out to a whopping 10-0 lead in the first inning. "I thought we did a nice job of just starting hot again and not assuming we had the lead," Hogue said. "Jumping on them the way we did was fun. They had to chase us all day." Lead-off hitter Kelsi Hoopi- iaina set the tone in the bottom of the first, opening up the game with her second home run of the day. Later in the first, freshmen Marissa Mendenhall and Kate Dickman set up shop for senior Tia Palauni's homer that stretched the score to 7-0. By the start of the second inning, the SPRING BALL Page 7 |