UW Hosts Utah in Final Home Series

SEATTLE -- The Washington Huskies have their final home series of the 2021 season this weekend, hosting Utah for three games, including Senior Day on the Sunday finale. The Huskies are looking to snap a skid of nine straight losses, while the Utes have lost six straight conference games, but most recently defeated BYU in a midweek contest on Tuesday. 

Scouting the Opposition

Utah at a Glance: The Utes sit one spot ahead of Washington in 10th place in the current Pac-12 standings, but have yet to win a conference series. Their five wins have come against five different teams in Arizona State,  Washington State, Oregon State, California and Stanford. 

Man in Charge: Bill Kinneberg is in his 18th season as the head coach of Utah and was the 2016 Pac-12 Coach of the Year after leading the Utes to the program's first Pac-12 Championship. He also helped Utah break a 49-year postseason streak when he led the Utes to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009.

By the Numbers: Utah bats .266 as a team, with four players batting over .300. Matt Richardson (.373) leads them in average and is tied for team lead with 28 RBI. Christopher Rowan, Jr. leads Utah with eight home runs and is the only player on the team with more than two long balls. 

On the mound, the Utes have a 6.54 team ERA. Of players with double-digit innings, Zac McCleve (3.30) has the lowest ERA. David Watson (2-7, 5.68 ERA), Kyle Robeniol (1-5, 7.32 ERA) and Justin Kelly (0-9, 7.65 ERA) have each started 11 games and are the top three Utah arms in terms of innings pitched. 
 

Husky Baseball Notes

Senior Day: Washington will honor 13 graduating seniors prior to Sunday's game. In alphabetical order, they are: Ramon Bramasco, Davis Delorefice, Jack Enger, Logan Gerling, Noah Hsue, Christian Jones, Dylan Lamb, Brandon Leitgeb, Michael Petrie, Gabe Smith, Braiden Ward and Kaiser Weiss. In addition to those 12, the program will also honor Jonathan Schiffer, who was on the team from 2017-2020, but had to medically retire after last season and is not on the current roster.

Huskies on the Leaderboards: Braiden Ward currently leads the Pac-12 with 30 stolen bases and is second with16 hit-by-pitches. He is third and 19th in those categories nationally. Ramon Bramasco is also second in the Pac-12 and 11th in the country with nine sacrifice bunts. As a team, UW leads the conference with 52 steals. On the mound, just one team in the Pac-12 has walked fewer batters than UW (151). Nationally, the Huskies are 35th in BB/9, with 3.41.

April Improvements: The month of April saw the Huskies turn up the offense as a team, with a couple of individual players standing out as well.  Will Simpson (.443) and Ramon Bramasco (.349) both batted well over the .300 mark, while Simpson also drove in 20 runs in just 15 games. Braiden Ward stole 12 bases in those 15 games as well. On the mound, Stefan Raeth (1.46), Adam Bloebaum (2.00) and Dylan Lamb (2.45) all improved their respective ERAs. 

Youngsters Producing: Freshmen Will Simpson and Cole Miller are first and third on the team in RBIs with 31 and 14, while freshmen have also combined for 14 of the team's 17 total home runs on the season. True freshman Michael Brown is second on the team in home runs and hit another long-ball against in the team's series against No. 11 Oregon. Adam Bloebaum has made eight starts this year and had a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings pitched in April. Michael Snyder has started the last eight games at third base and had hits in the first seven of those contests, while being on base in all eight.  

JUCO Made: A large number of Huskies can be traced back to the junior college ranks. Both UW starters Logan Gerling (Tacoma CC) and Tyson Guerrero (Lower Columbia CC) come from JuCo. Stefan Raeth, who leads the team with a 1.86 ERA is a product of Los Medanos CC.  Team-leader in saves, Davis Delorefice, came to UW after a season at Orange Coast College. Ramon Bramasco (Cerritos College) and Gabe Smith (Everett CC) are other notable Huskies with junior college experience.

Ward: On Base and Stealing: Junior Braiden Ward cracked the Huskies' top-five list for career stolen bases last season and is currently tied with Joe Trippy for second-place all time in UW history with 85 swipes. Chris Magruder holds the all-time record with 94.  Ward led the Pac-12 with 10 steals in the shortened 2020 season and became the first Conference player to lead the league in stolen bases three times. He currently leads the Pac-12 and is third in the country with 30. He is also tied for ninth in the country with 16 hit-by-pitches.

Husky Firsts: A couple of UW true freshmen have had moments to remember this season. Four different true freshmen have gotten a hit in their first-career at-bats this season. Emilio Corona and Kelly Corl each accomplished that against LMU. Carson Blatnick also ripped a single in his first career at-bat in the UTRGV series. Nick Kresnak singled in his first ever Husky at-bat in that series as well. 

Family Connections: Dylan Lamb is the younger brother of former Husky, current Chicago White Sox player and Arizona Diamondbacks 2018 All-Star third baseman, Jake Lamb ... Christian Dicochea has an older brother, Jason, that is currently a senior on the baseball team at Santa Clara ... Nate Weeldreyer's older brother, Colton, played tennis at Seattle University... Jack Enger's dad, Kyle, rowed at UW... Brothers Jake and Brandon Leitgeb's dad, Brian, was on the UW golf team.
 

Series Schedule