Dawgs Stay Put In Desert, Battle Grand Canyon Tuesday

PHOENIX – Coming off of an offensive shootout of a series at Arizona State over the weekend, Washington remains in Phoenix to take on Grand Canyon Tuesday afternoon at Brazell Field.
 
Set for a 1 p.m. PT first pitch, the game will be available for streaming on ESPN+. Links to live coverage are available at GoHuskies.com.

DAWG BITES
• It is the first midweek game outside of the Pacific Time Zone for the Huskies since playing at Oklahoma State in 2011.
 
• Tuesday's game will be the second to last midweek game of the season for the Huskies. Washington is 4-1 in midweek play.
 
• Washington has won both previous meetings with Grand Canyon.
 
• Washington is coming off of a 2-1 series defeat to the Sun Devils in which the Husky offense racked up 39 runs.
 
• The Dawgs' fell in a wild 21-18 shootout to ASU in the series decider on Sunday, the most runs UW has ever scored in a losing effort.
 
• The 18 runs were tied for the most against a Pac-12 opponent for UW since 2019, while Washington's 22 hits were tied for its most in a game since racking up 24 knocks against Northern Colorado in 2019.
 
• AJ Guerrero's .650 batting average against ASU was the highest average in the Pac-12 over the weekend. Guerrero also led the Pac-12 with 13 RBIs over the weekend.
 
• The Huskies rank 19th nationally with a .979 team fielding percentage.

SERIES HISTORY VS. GRAND CANYON
Washington and Grand Canyon have played just two times previously, with the Huskies coming out on top both times. UW earned a 4-2 victory over the Antelopes in a neutral site matchup in Hawai'i in 1994. The Huskies also hosted GCU in 2014 in Seattle, narrowly pulling out an 8-7 win.

THAT'S OFFENSIVE
So far during their stay in the desert, the Phoenix sun has done wonders to heat up the Husky bats. Washington scored 39 runs during its three-game series against Arizona State, racking up nine home runs, a pair of triples and four doubles for a .618 team slugging percentage.

In Sunday's series finale, despite suffering defeat, UW exploded for 18 runs, tied for its most against a Pac-12 opponent since 2019. The 18 runs were Washington's most ever in a losing effort.

Nobody has enjoyed the desert air quite like AJ Guerrero, who's .625 batting average and 13 RBIs were the highest in the Pac-12 over the weekend. Guerrero blasted four home runs over the final two games of the series, slugging 1.375 for the weekend. Guerrero's eight RBIs in Sunday's series finale were the most by a Husky since Brian Wolfe also drove in eight at USC in 2014.

G-MONEY
Washington closer Grant Cunningham owns a 2.61 ERA, the lowest in the Pac-12, ranking 22nd in the nation. Half of Cunningham's 12 earned runs allowed for the year came in Friday's game at Arizona State.

SCARY TERRY
Recovering from an injury that kept him out for the first 26 games of the season, Braeden Terry has provided a boost to Washington's lineup since becoming active. The Everett Community College product is riding a 10-game hitting streak, batting .349 and drawing 14 walks for a .500 on-base percentage.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Crushing four home runs over the final two games of Washington's series at Arizona State, AJ Guerrero entered the top-10 on UW's all-time career home runs list. Guerrero currently sits seventh with 31 big flies in Purple and Gold.

WEB WORK
Washington owns the Pac-12's top defense, rankings 40th in the nation with a .977 fielding percentage. The solid play defensively has paid dividends, with 14 of Washington's 18 wins this season coming in games without an error committed.

EXTRA! EXTRA!
Of the 54 base knocks Jeter Ybarra has recorded in 2024, 18 of them have gone for extra bases. The redshirt-junior has racked up 14 doubles and four home runs this season, 10 more extra-base hits than he produced over the entirety of 2023.

Following UW's series win at No. 14 Texas, Ybarra became the first Husky to be named the Pac-12 Player of the Week since 2019, when Braiden Ward received the honor. Ybarra batted .636 during the series with five RBIs and three runs scored. In game one in Austin, Ybarra was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with three doubles, becoming the first UW player with a five-hit game since 2019.

WORKING OVERTIME
Playing into the 17th inning at Long Beach State and completing 15 frames versus Santa Clara, Washington has played in the two longest games in college baseball this season.

SOPHOMORE YEAR
Washington is in its second season under head coach Jason Kelly after an impressive rookie campaign on Montlake. Not only was Kelly's 35 wins the second-most in program-history by a first year head coach, but the skipper became the first coach at Washington to lead the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament in his first season.

PRE-APPROVED
One year after Johnny Tincher was the lone UW representative on the Preseason All-Pac-12 Team, three Huskies were named to the list ahead of the 2024 season. Turning down a potential MLB Draft selection to return to Montlake, shortstop Cam Clayton earned a spot after batting .325 with 32 extra base hits a season ago. Leading the team with a .345 average in 2023, AJ Guerrero joined Clayton, adding a steady outfield glove to his accomplished bat. Reliever Josh Emanuels rounded out the Dawgs honored, collecting six saves and a 3-2 record on the hill a year ago.

SAFE HANDS
A year after leading the Huskies with six saves, redshirt-junior relief arm Josh Emanuels was named to the 2024 NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List. Emanuels was one of five Pac-12 relievers to be named to the watch list.

DRAFT DEPARTURES
Washington had a number of key pieces to replace after six Huskies were drafted in the 2023 MLB Draft, the most in a single class for UW since the Dawgs saw six players drafted in 2019. Kiefer Lord was the first Husky selected, picked in the third round by the Baltimore Orioles. At 86th overall, Lord was UW's highest draftee since Austin Rei was drafted 81st overall in 2015. Case Matter was also drafted on Day 2, going to the Texas Rangers in the 10th round. Stu Flesland III was next off the board to the Colorado Rockies in the 11th round. Johnny Tincher joined Flesland in the 11th round, selected by the Cleveland Guardians, while Will Simpson was picked by the Oakland Athletics in the 15th round. Finishing things off was Coby Morales, who had his rights selected by the New York Yankees in the 18th round.

D3 DIAMONDS
For the second straight year, Washington has hit the NCAA Division III ranks to add to its pitching staff through the transfer portal. The Huskies added right-hander Spencer Dessart out of Middlebury College in Vermont, who posted a 4.32 ERA with 63 strikeouts over 50 innings. Last off season, UW brought in D3 transfer Kiefer Lord out of Minnesota's Carleton College, with Lord going on to be a third round draft choice in the 2023 MLB Draft.

DRAFT KINGS
Washington had seven players featured this offseason when D1Baseball released their Pac-12 MLB Prospect Rankings for the 2024 and 2025 draft classes.

D1Baseball Pac-12 MLB Draft Prospect Rankings
Cam Clayton - 2024 - No. 8 (No. 68 nationally)
AJ Guerrero - 2024 - No. 16
Josh Emanuels - 2024 - No. 45
Jeter Ybarra - 2024 - No. 48
Aiva Arquette - 2025 - No. 6 (No. 51 nationally)
Sam Boyle - 2025 - No. 21
Grant Cunningham - 2025 - No. 25

YOUNG BUCKS
The Huskies landed three rookie players on D1Baseball's Pac-12 Impact Freshman Rankings, announced during the preseason.

D1Baseball Pac-12 Impact Freshman Rankings
Blake Wilson - No. 14
Carson Ohland - No. 22
Carston Pearson - No. 23

TOP DAWGS
Washington had two players recognized in D1Baseball's national position rankings. Cam Clayton checked in as the No. 8 shortstop in the country, while AJ Guerrero was tabbed at No. 29 among outfielders.

IT CAN WAIT
For the second year in a row, a Washington commit turned down the opportunity to sign with an MLB team to join the Husky roster after Blake Wilson was drafted in the 20th round of the 2023 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals but still made his way to Montlake. Husky sophomore Aiva Arquette was a 18th round draft choice by the Arizona Diamondbacks before coming to campus.

A DECADE ON THE DIAMOND
Opened on March 21, 2014, Washington will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the inaugural game played at Husky Ballpark. The Huskies are 161-105 all-time at the stadium.

FAMILIAR FACES
The UW roster features two newcomers with previous Pac-12 ties. Tommy Brandenburg, a junior college graduate of Central Arizona College, spent his true freshman season at Oregon, making eight pitching appearances and four starts. Meanwhile, catcher Colton Bower redshirted the 2023 season at Washington State.

PRO PEDIGREE
Jason Ellison, a six-year Major League Baseball player with the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers, was added to Jason Kelly's staff as UW's hitting and outfield coordinator during the offseason following the departure of Billy Boyer. Ellison, a native of Port Orchard, Washington, had worked as an MLB scout since 2011 with the Los Angeles Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations.

Kelly also promoted Jake Silverman and Mike Gange to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, respectively.

WELCOME BACK, JOE
One of the all-time great Huskies, Joe DeMers has returned to Montlake as an undergraduate assistant. An All-Pac-12 standout, DeMers led the Dawgs to their first-ever College World Series in 2018, delivering a 1.80 ERA over four postseason starts. In addition to all-conference laurels, DeMers was awarded the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove. He was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

GROWING 'EM LOCAL
Well over half of the Husky roster, 24 of 41 players overall, are homegrown talents from the state of Washington. Of those 24 local products, 16 hail from the greater Seattle Metropolitan area. Below is a breakdown of the counties UW's Washington natives call home.

UW Washington Natives by County
King County - 15
Clark County - 4
Cowlitz County - 1
Kitsap County - 2
Pierce County - 1
Snohomish County - 1
Spokane County - 1

PAC-12 SWAN SONG
Washington is competing in its final Pac-12 season before joining the Big Ten Conference in 2025. UW was one of the four founding members of what started in December of 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, which eventually grew to become the Pac-12.

For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.