UCLA baseball prepares for tough pitching matchup in Utah

UCLA baseball will face one of the most surprising teams in the Pac-12 – if not the country – when it heads to Salt Lake City this weekend.

The team the Bruins will face there – the Utah Utes – were a perennial doormat in the Pac-12 before this season. Since joining the Pac-12 in the summer of 2011, they have compiled a 24-94 conference record – by far the worst in the conference.

Heading into this year, it seemed like it would be more of the same story for the Utes. They entered the year ranked dead last in the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll and started the season with a 4-11 overall record.

Then came conference play, and everything changed.

It’s almost like the Utes flipped a switch. In its first Pac-12 series – on the road against then-No. 19 Oregon in mid-March – Utah won two out of three. That marked Utah’s first Pac-12 series win in over a year.

The momentum just kept on building from there.

Less than a week later, Utah came back and took two out of three from perennial Pac-12 power Arizona State – on the road once again. The Utes followed up that act by sweeping Arizona in a three-game home set.

“There’s just too much parity (in the Pac-12),” said UCLA coach John Savage on April 6, after Utah had swept Arizona. “I mean look at Utah; Utah has won seven games in league and I think 10 games overall.”

Savage was exactly right – the Utes were leading the Pac-12 at the time with a 7-2 conference record, and just a 10-14 overall record.

Though Utah has lost a little bit of momentum since, dropping each of its last two Pac-12 series, the Utes still control their own destiny in the Pac-12. Heading into this weekend’s three-game set with UCLA, Utah (14-22, 9-6) is tied with Washington for the conference lead.

The Bruins are not too far behind, though. Despite a rough start to conference play, UCLA (19-19, 9-9) is in a position where a three-game sweep of Utah could bring the Bruins near the top of the Pac-12 standings.

“At this stage it’s really, really tight (in the Pac-12),” Savage said. “Really from top to bottom, there’s very little separation. … This is a critical Pac-12 series, like they all are, really.”

Series outlook

It will be an unconventional series in terms of start times. Instead of the first two games being night games and the last game of the series being a day game, it will be the reverse.

The first two games of the series will be day games – Friday and Saturday at 11 a.m. The final game of the series will be Sunday at 6 p.m., meaning the Bruins will have to stay in Salt Lake City Sunday night and return to Westwood Monday morning.

UCLA has a record of 11-1 against Utah since the Utes joined the Pac-12 in the 2012 season.

Probable starters

The pitcher UCLA will face on Friday is arguably the most dominant starting pitcher in the Pac-12 this year: Jayson Rose.

The sophomore righty is not the most imposing – standing at 5-feet-11, 175 pounds – but he is by far the best strikeout thrower in the conference. Heading into the UCLA series, Rose leads the Pac-12 with a strikeout rate of nearly 10 per nine innings. The next-closest Pac-12 pitcher is UCLA sophomore righty Griffin Canning, who averages 8.26 per nine innings.

If there’s one weakness with Rose, it’s his control. In Pac-12 play, he’s averaging 4.3 walks per nine innings. It hasn’t seemed to hold him back too much though, as he’s posted a 2.41 ERA in his five conference starts.

Rose will face off against Canning on Friday in a game that will likely be frequented by several MLB scouts.

After Rose, Utah’s starting pitching falls off significantly.

The Utes’ Saturday starter – senior righty Dalton Carroll – has a 5.72 ERA in his five conference starts, and the Sunday starter – lanky sophomore lefty Josh Lapiana – has a 4.82 ERA in his five conference starts. Since pitching a complete-game shutout in his first conference start against Oregon on March 20, Lapiana has a conference ERA of 7.10.

Overall, the Utes rank dead-last in the Pac-12 with an ERA of 5.35.

UCLA will likely counter Utah with its usual Saturday-Sunday combo of junior righty Grant Dyer (2-2, 5.44 ERA) and freshman righty Kyle Molnar (3-4, 3.59).