PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball travels across town to face Utah Valley in a midweek nonconference game on Tuesday, April 7 at 6:05 p.m. MT at UCCU Ballpark in Orem. The Cougars will then head to Texas for a three-game Big 12 series against the Houston Cougars April 9-11 at Schroeder Park.
BROADCAST PLANS. All four games will be broadcast live on ESPN+. The games will also be available on the BYU Radio app, BYUradio.org, SiriusXM 143 and 107.9 FM in Utah County with Greg Wrubell providing play-by-play.
WEEKEND RECAP. The Cougars are coming off a three-game series at Baylor in Waco, Texas. The Bears won the bookend games of the series (12-5, 3-1), while BYU won game two 10-4. Junior reliever Nate Gray (5-5) picked up his third-straight win of the season in game two. The right-hander from Queen Creek, Arizona, came on in relief with one out in the third inning and went the distance facing 30 Bear hitters over 6.2 innings, striking out five while allowing just one earned run.
PREVIEWING THE MATCHUP. BYU is 14-16 on the year and 5-7 in Big 12 play. Meanwhile UVU enters the rivalry matchup also at 14-16 and 0-0 in the WAC. Tuesday’s game is first of two midweek contests between the Cougars and Wolverines, with the second game scheduled for Tuesday, May 12 at Miller Park in Provo.
SERIES HISTORY. BYU and UVU will meet for the 50th time in baseball on Tuesday. The crosstown foes have met at least once each season since 2005 with the Cougars leading the series 38-11, including 19-7 in games played at Utah Valley. BYU has won 17 of its last 19 meetings with UVU, including the last three.
BAT CATS. BYU is led offensively by Ezra McNaughton, Ryder Robinson and Easton Jones. The trio have started all 30 games for the Cougars and are in the top three in nearly every offensive category. McNaughton is the team leader in average (.379), hits (50), runs (25), RBI (34), slugging (.659) and OBP (.442), and is second in HRs (9) and doubles (10). Robinson is hitting .278 and leads BYU in runs (25), stolen bases (7) and walks (14) and is top three in average (.278), hits (35) and OBP (.366).
Jones is hitting .277 and leads BYU in home runs (10) and is top three in RBI (24), runs (23), slugging (.563), walks (12) and stolen bases (4). Crew McChesney, who is hitting .309 and is also top three for the Cougars in several offensive categories, was injured in the Oklahoma State series and will miss the UVU game.
ON THE HILL. Nate Gray (5-5) leads BYU, and is tied for the Big 12 Conference lead, with five wins on the year in 10 appearances. In 37.2 innings he has 35 strikeouts and is holding opposing batters to a .252 average. Ashton Johnson (2-3) is second on the team with two wins in 29 innings, with 29 strikeouts and two saves. Seven other Cougars enter the UVU series with one win including Garrison Sumner, Cayson Bell, Austin Park, Jaxon Clayton, Dan Brousseau, Ethan Zufall and Nate Wochner.
KNOW THE FOE. UVU is 14-16 overall and 10-6 in games at UCCU Ballpark. The Wolverines are coming off a 2-1 weekend series victory at CSU Bakersfield. UVU won games one (14-4) and two (5-4) before losing game three (8-2). The Wolverines have yet to play a WAC game, so they are 0-0 in conference play.
Former Cougar infielder Chipper Beck leads UVU in average (.360), while outfielder Kaden Carpenter is the team's pacesetter in hits (39), doubles (12), RBI (34), runs (36) and stolen bases (12). Hunter Katschke is the UVU home run leader (11) and is slugging a blistering (.713).
On the hill, righty Garrett Miller leads UVU with three wins, while Aaron Rice and Quinn Holt each have two. Seven other Wolverines have won at least one game, including Jacob Heppner, who leads the team in innings pitched (31.0), and former Cougar right-hander Maddax Peck, who has a team-high two saves.