League-leading Saint Mary’s College comes to Provo this week, but first BYU baseball plays a nonconference game at Utah on Tuesday night.
The Cougars (10-11 overall and 1-2 in the West Coast Conference) play Utah (10-11 overall and 1-5 in the Pac-12) in the first of three games this season for the Deseret First Duel series. On Monday, April 3, BYU plays a second Pac-12 Conference foe when it hosts Oregon. Sandwiched in between those Pac-12 battles is a three-game WCC series against undefeated Saint Mary’s (3-0 in WCC and 17-6 overall).
“These next seven days are huge for us,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “The Utah game is big for all the obvious reasons, and then we host a team we shared the league title with last year. Saint Mary's is having another great season and they are playing well of late. This week provides a great opportunity for our guys to play high level programs and prove what they're made of.”
BYU will start sophomore right-hander Jordan Wood (1-0, 1.93) against Utah at 6 p.m. MDT on Tuesday. That game will be televised live by the Pac-12 Network at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City.
Against SMC, the Cougars will start Maverik Buffo (3-3, 5.24) on Thursday at 2 p.m. MDT and Brady Corless (2-0, 4.35) on Friday at 6 p.m. MDT at Larry H. Miller Field. Saturday’s game against the Gaels will start at noon with Hayden Rogers (1-1, 2.51) on the mound for BYU.
“It's great to have Oregon come to Miller Park and we look forward to playing another quality Pac-12 opponent,” Littlewood said. “Coach (George) Horton is a college baseball coaching legend and I'm excited to play his ball club.”