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This is everything Dalton Carroll could have hoped for when he joined his twin brother in coming from Taylorsville to the University of Utah, taking the mound Saturday with a chance to pitch the Utes to at least a share of the Pac-12 baseball championship.
The only trouble is a Senior Day defeat would spoil Utah's hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
Thanks to a 5-4 loss to Washington at Smith's Ballpark on Friday, the Utes must win the remaining two games of the series to earn an outright conference title and extend their season. Each team is 17-11 in Pac-12 play, but a series victory would give the Huskies the tiebreaker and the Utes' 23-27 overall record will preclude an NCAA at-large bid.
The Utes are trying to go from worst to first in the Pac-12 — after finishing last in each of their previous four seasons as conference members. They're targeting the athletic department's third league championship, following the gymnastics team's two titles in the Pac-12 meet.
But if they split the last two games, the Utes really will regret how Friday's opportunity got away from them in the ninth inning, after they came from four runs down to tie the game. Coach Bill Kinneberg liked his team's response and is confident the Utes will remain resilient, but they're unable to follow their season's usual pattern. Only once in Pac-12 play has Utah lost the opening game of a series and won the next two.
And only once prior to Friday had reliever Dylan Drachler allowed an earned run in conference play, covering 21 innings. Drachler gave up the go-ahead run via Chris Baker's triple into the right-field corner in the ninth inning, as Utah outfielder Josh Rose slipped on the warning track while chasing the bouncing ball.
"[Baker] hit a good pitch … not a whole lot you can do about that," Kinneberg said.
The Utes had rallied with Andre Jackson's three-run double in the sixth inning and Dallas Carroll's RBI single in the seventh, while starter Jayson Rose steadied himself sufficiently to pitch eight innings. So the Ute bullpen will be fully staffed Saturday, while Kinneberg hopes for better results than Dalton Carroll has delivered lately.
Carroll has allowed four and five earned runs in his last two starts against Stanford and California, not lasting six innings in either game. "He has to throw strike one … and stay ahead be able to mix his pitches," Kinneberg said.
Otherwise, Jayson Rose said, the Huskies will "hunt fastballs" and succeed at the plate, as they did Friday. And if the Utes lose Saturday, their remarkable season will end Sunday.
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