Utah was announced as the No. 10 seed in the Big 12 baseball tournament on May 18 and will play against No. 11 seed Kansas State in the opening round at Surprise Stadium.
The seeding follows Utah’s regular season finish with a record of 26-24 overall and a conference mark of 12-18. The team performed strongly at home, achieving a record of 16-8 during its first season at America First Ballpark under head coach Gary Henderson.
Several games toward the end of the season were closely contested, with seven conference losses decided by two runs or fewer, including matchups against eventual Big 12 regular season champion Kansas and third-seeded Arizona State. Utah also secured a notable series win over Kansas State in Salt Lake City from March 27 to March 29, highlighted by eighth-inning comebacks that resulted in two victories and an impressive total of eleven runs scored during those innings.
Jake Long made history during that series by hitting for the cycle, becoming only the third Utah player ever to do so and the first since 2005. He finished that game with five hits in six at-bats, including two home runs. Five Utes hitters ended the regular season batting .300 or better, led by Long’s .369 average. The team’s overall batting average stood at .308—third best in the Big 12 and ranked twenty-fourth nationally—which is on pace to be their highest since posting a .323 average in 2008.
Defensively, Utah led all Big 12 teams with fifty-one double plays this year—a figure that ranks seventh nationally—and is one away from entering their program’s top six for single-season double plays turned.
Utah closed out its regular season with an eleven-to-ten loss to Baylor after leading early by as many as six runs.
