Returning to the Road After Eight-Game Home Stand

After playing eight consecutive games at home, BYU's baseball team returns to the road as it travels to San Diego State this week. The Cougars, now 17-12 overall and 8-1 in the Mountain West Conference, are still atop the league standings. SDSU, 18-15 and 6-3, is in third place of the MWC.

First the Cougars host Southern Colorado, 18-11, on Tuesday at 1 p.m., before flying to California. The probable rotation against SDSU is Jeff Stone (6-2, 5.47) on Thursday night, Micah Mangrum (5-3, 4.06) on Friday night and James Ray (3-2, 5.21) on Saturday afternoon. Game times are 7 p.m. MST on Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. MST on Saturday. Radio KSRR (1400 AM) will carry live local radio broadcasts of the games.

"We are playing well right now," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "Our pitchers really buckled up and I am pleased with the way they performed last week. It's important that we are leading the league, but actually all it means is seeding in the conference tournament. It was nice to sweep Utah. I have a lot of respect for them and the games could have gone either way."

The Cougar three-game sweep over the Utes was the first for BYU since 1995. Last weekend BYU got a full nine-inning game by Stone, the MWC Pitcher of the Week the previous week, and a pair of saves by Todd Crump and Nate Fernley.

The team's batting average dropped a couple points to .317, but lowered its earned run average to 4.98. Individually, Craig Peterson leads the team with a .426 batting average, followed by Aaron Whitley at .419. Freshman Matt Carson extended his hitting streak to 12 games.