PROVO, Utah — After three games in Salt Lake City in April, BYU and Utah take the rivalry game south to Miller Park in a non-conference matchup slated for May 13 at 6 p.m. MDT.
| Utah (20-26) at BYU (24-25) | Miller Park | Provo, UT | |||
| Date & Time (MDT) | Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
| Tuesday, May 13 at 6 p.m. | ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
WEEKEND RECAP. BYU returns home to Miller Park after a four-game road trip in Kansas concluded with a weekend series versus the Jayhawks at Lawrence’s Hoglund Ballpark May 8-10. The Cougars took one of three games in the series (7-5, 1-10, 6-7) with games one and three featuring back-and-forth dramatics.
In Thursday’s game, BYU used a four-run third inning to lead 5-1 through the top of the fifth. KU responded to square the game 5-5 in the sixth before timely singles from Luke Anderson and Crew McChesney helped the Cougars retake a 7-5 lead in the eighth. BYU closer Ashton Johson took command of the mound in the bottom of the sixth and went on to retire 11 of 13 batters faced on his way to four hitless innings and his third win of the season as he preserved the 7-5 BYU victory.
Saturday’s series rubber match featured KU breaking out to a 5-0 lead through two innings before the Cougars clawed back with six unanswered runs for a 6-5 lead in the seventh. BYU looked to close out the victory in the bottom of the ninth but a one-run lead proved insufficient as the Jayhawks put runners aboard and won on an RBI single.
SERIES HISTORY. BYU and Utah will meet for the 384th time on Tuesday. With records dating back to 1948, the Cougars hold the all-time series lead 252-130-1, including 129-54 in Provo. The first Big 12 edition of the BYU-Utah rivalry played out in a weekend series at Salt Lake City’s Smith’s Ballpark on April 10-12. The Cougars took the series-opener, 9-8, before falling short in games two and three (4-6, 6-9).
Brock Watkins, Anderson and Cooper Vest each made their presence felt for BYU in the April rivalry games. While playing in only game one and part of game two prior to injury, Watkins recorded hits on four of six at bats with a double, home run and three RBI. Anderson hit 5-of-13 with two runs, a double, homer and four RBI. Vest’s three RBI and four runs scored came on a homer, double and 4-of-11 showing from the plate.
Johnson earned his second save of the season in game one’s 9-8 win over the Utes. The junior lefty made two appearances in the series with three hits and two strikeouts scattered over 4.1 scoreless innings.
BYU won the series’ last Miller Park meeting in a 5-4 classic on April 23, 2024. The Cougars faced a 4-2 deficit in the fourth but rallied to tie the game at four in the eighth with a wild-pitch-turned-run by Anderson and Watkins RBI double. BYU then finished the night in style with Ryker Schow coming home on a Kuhio Aloy walk-off RBI single.
The Cougars and Utes have not evenly split a season series since an 8-6 Utah win and 10-3 BYU victory in 2019.
KNOW THE FOE. Utah enters the new week at 20-26 and 7-20 in Big 12 play with a 13-18 road record. The Utes are currently 14th in the Big 12, one game back of BYU in the league standings, after taking their weekend series at then-No. 22 Arizona (8-6, 13-5, 7-8) May 9-11. While Tuesday’s BYU-Utah game will not count toward Big 12 standings, the Cougars, Utes and UCF are in a three-way battle for the final spot into the conference tournament, a battle to be decided in the coming weekend as each team faces its final regular season series.
Since last meeting the Cougars in Salt Lake City in April, Utah has lost Big 12 series' at Baylor, at Houston and home versus Kansas. In midweek nonconference action, the Utes have beaten Utah Valley twice (13-5, 8-2).
Fourth-year head coach Gary Henderson’s Utes are led by four batters hitting north of .300 in infielders Core Jackson, Austin Roellig and Tyler Quinn along with outfielder Santino Panaro. Jackson’s team-high .355 comes with a team lead in runs scored (57), doubles (16). homers (12) and RBI (42). Roellig and Jackson share a team-leading 66 hits with Roellig adding 14 doubles and 34 RBI. Panaro leads Utah in triples (3) with 25 runs scored on 45 hits and 15 RBI. Quinn is second on the team in hits (55) and third in RBI (33).