Utah Baseball (Photo by Utah Athletics)
Baseball season in the state of Utah began well for the Cougars, Utes, Wolverines, and Trailblazers!
Utah 2-1 (0-0 in the Big 12)
The Utes opened their season with an 8-3 victory at Fresno State on Friday. They got their second win on Saturday, 5-4. Fresno State struck back on Sunday with a 14-8 victory. The Bulldogs and the U were supposed to play a fourth game today, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. Utah will remain in California for the rest of February and into early March. Their home opener will not be until Friday, March 6th, against Grand Canyon. This week, they’ll play UC San Diego on Thursday, the University of San Diego on Friday, San Diego State on Saturday, and the Creighton Blue Jays on Sunday.
UVU 2-2 (0-0 in the WAC)
Utah Valley got off to a good start in their 2026 season. They won on Friday, 3-2 over Pacific in Stockton, California. They took game one of their doubleheader on Saturday with a score of 9-6. The second half on Saturday didn’t go as well as the Wolverines fell, 13-7. Sunday, they ended with a series split after a 3-2 defeat. UVU will look to rely on their upperclassmen-heavy roster this season. 13 of their 15 batters in the series against Pacific are juniors or seniors, and 12 of the 16 pitchers from their opening series are upperclassmen as well. This Thursday, they will start a four-game series in Reno, Nevada, against the Nevada Wolfpack.
BYU 2-2 (0-0 in the Big 12)
BYU won their opening game, the first part of a doubleheader, 3-2 on Friday over Western Kentucky in the Bluegrass State. The Cougars stumbled in the second game on Friday, falling 5-2. Saturday, they again lost with their bats quiet, falling 4-2. Today, the Cougars were able to get their offense going and split the series with WKU with a 12-8 victory. Junior centerfielder Crew McChesney and sophomore first baseman Ezra McNaughton provided the highlights for BYU with two home runs each in their series against Western Kentucky. BYU will stay on the road this week. They will head to San Diego and will remain in California for the rest of February. On Thursday, they will play Omaha, on Friday, San Diego State, on Saturday, UC San Diego, and on Monday, UC Riverside.
Utah Tech 4-0 (0-0 in the WAC)
Tech had the best start to the 2026 season among teams in the Beehive State. Utah Tech swept UC Riverside on the road to start the year. Friday, they won the opening game, 12-5. On Saturday, they played a doubleheader, winning the first game 4-3 and claiming victory in the second 12-8. Finally, on Sunday won 8-1. This was quite the turnaround after going 1-3 early in 2025 against UC Riverside and finishing last season 24-31. Utah Tech is an upperclassmen-heavy team, with only three of their 15 players who had at-bats in the opening series being freshmen and sophomores. The Trailblazers will remain in Southern California, playing Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday and then a three-game series against Pacific over the weekend.
Wally Joyner Player of the Week
BYU’s Crew McChesney was the Wally Joyner Player of the Week with his 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 home runs, and 2 runs-batted-in in BYU’s series split on the road against Western Kentucky. WAC Pitcher of the Week Ryan Kroepel, who had two saves in Utah Tech’s sweep of UC Riverside, was a close second!
