For the first time in history Washington brings its baseball team to Provo as BYU hosts the Huskies in a two-game series Tuesday and Wednesday at 2 p.m. each day.
BYU,19-13 overall, takes a break from Mountain West Conference action to host Washington, 16-13 and 5-4 in the Pac-10. The Cougars are 6-3 in the MWC, in third place and a game-and-a-half out of first. The Cougars hold a 13-8-1 advantage in the series between the two schools.
Among the Cougar leaders is sophomore second baseman Kent Walton who was named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for his performance in four games last week. While BYU has had two pitchers, Jordan Muir and Jake Wortham, selected as MWC Pitchers of the Week earlier in the year, this is the first time this season that player honors have gone to a Cougar.
Walton went 8-for-17 (.471) from the plate last week, helping BYU to a 4-0 record, including a three-game sweep over UNLV. For the week, he hit three home runs and two doubles, while compiling nine RBI and six runs scored. Walton started the week with a 3-for-5 performance, which included a home run, two doubles, four RBI and two run scored in the Cougars' 12-10 victory over Binghamton. In the first game of the UNLV series, Walton went 2-for-5 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored in BYU's 14-13 win. In game two, he started the scoring with a second inning lead-off homer. His eighth inning RBI single also put BYU up for good on the way to a 5-3 win. In the final game of the series, Walton went 1-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored in the Cougars' 16-9 victory. Defensively, he had five putouts, 11 assists and one error.
Lefties Blaine Howell (1-1, 6.62) of BYU and Nick Haughian (3-3, 4.91) are scheduled to start on Tuesday. Jesse Craig (4-2, 4.10), a BYU right-hander, is scheduled to face UW sophomore lefty, Tyler Cheney (1-2, 5.04) on Wednesday.
Both games will be broadcast live locally over KOVO-960 AM. This is BYU's only action this week. The Cougars next play after Washington on Tuesday when they host Southern Utah.
For more information on BYU's baseball team for this week, click on the PDF link at the top of this page.