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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Thursday, March 28, 2013 7 BASEBALL Utah to face NCAA defending champs Chad Mobley STAFF WRITER Utah baseball continues its version of March Madness as they travel to Tucson, Ariz., for another threegame series at Hi Corbett Field. They'll face the defending NCAA Champions and head coach Bill Kinneberg's alma mater Arizona this weekend. The Pac-12 foes have been on opposite and surprising trajectories of late. Utah has won four out of their last five games, including a series win over in-conference opponents Stanford. On the other hand, Arizona is on a bit of a skid, losing six straight games against Oregon and Oregon State. Despite their struggles, the Utes aren't slighting the defending champs. "[Arizona's] Pac-12 record isn't indicative of who they are and where they are going to be," Kinneberg said. "They are a quality team. We will have to play well this weekend." Playing Tuesday night games versus in-state rivals over the past two weeks has built momentum for the team, but it has also taken a toll on the Utes' pitching staff. "I didn't want to use this much pitching — I know that," Kinneberg said after Utah's win over BYU Tuesday. "I didn't want to use Luke [West] tonight, and I didn't want to use [Josh] Chapman. Hopefully Thursday night we get a great effort out of [Mitch] Watrous so that we can save our bullpen a little bit." With Brock Duke still out of the rotation, Utah plans to give Watrous the series opening nod once again. Dal- ton Carroll is currently slated to take the second start in the series. He's been having success on the mound with a 2-I record in three starts as a freshman. However, his twin brother has been gaining more attention as the Utes' starting third baseman and red-hot offensive producer. Dallas Carroll was named the Pac-12's player of the week. It was the first time a Utah player has garnered the award since joining the conference. "It was a great honor for him. He had a great weekend," Kinneberg said. "I'm very proud of him. He's still got a lot to learn, but he's going to be a great player." Carroll deferred the credit to his teammates. "I'm honored to win it. I like to view it as a team effort also," Carroll said. "Without Braden [Anderson] or Kody [Davis] or anyone else getting on base, RBIs never would've come around. You can look at it just as me being player of the week, but without them doing their part I never would've got it." Carroll is confident he and his teammates can continue the offensive tear they've been on lately. Cory Hunt fed off the energy of Spring Mobile Ballpark in front of the U faithful on his way to a 4-4 performance in Tuesday night's battle with BYU. He's looking forward to facing their next PAC-12 competition. "The defending champs at their place are never easy to play," Hunt said. "We'll just come out and play the best we can." The series begins tonight at 6 p.m. c.mobley@ chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @Chad_Mobley ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Ti Bennett rounds the bases during a game against BYU on Tuesday, where the Utes won 5-4. SOFTBALL University Utes hope to end losing streak at new home field MEDIA SALES GROUP 8 2 Connor Wallace STAFF WRITER The Utes are once again on a streak. However, this time it is a losing streak. Tuesday's home loss to Utah Valley University increased the Utes' drought to eight games. Up next, Utah (13-14 -I, 0 -3 Pac-12) faces No. 17 Arizona in a three-game home series starting today and running until Saturday. Today marks the first Pac-12 home opener for the Utes in their new stadium, and the Utes will have an uphill battle. Arizona (21-10, 1-2) has three strong pitchers and six players hitting over .300, which is double what Utah has. After the UVU game, outfielder Kate Dickman said the performance was not an accurate indicator of the team's potential. "We're really excited to play Arizona," she said. "We just had a really good talk after the game [against Utah Valley], and everyone is going to refocus and get our minds right and just forget about this game. We're ready to play someone who is, on paper, better than us, and we're going to prove that we are just as good and that we can beat them." Similar to Dickman, pitcher Mariah Ramirez is confident, despite the poor performance. "We just need to play as a team, and I think we're fully capable of going out there and doing our best against Arizona," Ramirez said. "So it's going to be a good week." Like Utah, Arizona hasn't fared well in the Poe-12. The Wildcats lost two out of three games to Washington last weekend. Arizona is ranked in the bottom half of the conference but is still a dangerous opponent. Arizona has the higher rank- THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH TM 3 5 4 7 2 5 7 5 4 1 2 3 9 31 6 8 4 7 6 9 7 8 1 6 5 4 8 3 2 8 5 1 4 9 ANSWERS TO TODAY'S PUZZLE DROUGHT BED GAB WELLNOW EDUARDO ADDUPTO EYEWEAR RAIL AHAB TEAMO FLEA SIREE ESAU SESTO TOAD KING ERR URGE ECH TPS FOUNDED RES HOP FUND SAM OLAF GITS MASSE RAMA HOHOS TALL ORBIT NEWT TROI USOTOUR HASHOUT GETHOME ARRANGE HAS LAP TROUGHS facebook.com/PCSTcomics 0 Doug Bratton 2013 " • • • ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Left fielder Kate Dickman leads off third base in a game March 5. Dickman continued her six-game hitting streak against Utah Valley University on Tuesday, despite Utah losing 1-4. ing and a better record, but the Utes have fared better against common opponents. Both teams have played Loyola Marymount, Ohio State and Long Beach State. Utah beat all three teams by a greater margin than Arizona, and the Wildcats lost to Ohio State. However, Utah won't get any runs for beating a team Arizona didn't, even though they have needed every run they can get of late. Offense has been a problem during Utah's slide. Head coach Amy Hogue said there are problems the coaching staff can help with, but confidence isn't one of them. "There are girls who have holes in their swings that we need to fix, but the confidence level and some of the things, we can't do for them. They're going to have to do on their own," Hogue said. Utah has adopted the goal of finishing the regular season with a .Soo record, which is looking like more and more of a challenge after Utah's recent disappointing play. However, Hogue is excited to move ahead and remove Tuesday's loss from the team's mind. In her opinion, playing loose is the cure. "We don't have to be perfect to win every other game," Hogue said. "So I think we play the game a little too uptight and tense. You know, [the coaches] have asked [the players] to really pay attention to that and to make an adjustment so they can play to the best of their abilities, because we know their abilities and they're not showing what they're capable of." c.wallace@ chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @ConnorR Wallace Contrary to her song lyrics, you can in fact read Lady Gaga's poker face. P"F |