BYU Baseball looks to bounce back in 4-game series with Northern Colorado and San Jose State

The rain in Northern California has moved the tournament from San Jose natural grass to Stockton turf.

By Keith Shirts@CougarCast Feb 23, 2017, 7:00am PST

The BYU Cougars baseball team enters their second weekend with a 1-2 record. The Y will take part of the 3-team San Jose State Tournament against Northern Colorado and San Jose State.

The University of Northern Colorado will enter this weekend with a 2-3 record. The Bears opened their 2017 season with a 4-game series against a West Coast Conference opponent in San Francisco. The Dons came out on top in the series winning 3 out of the 4 games. Following that series, Northern Colorado picked up a midweek game against San Francisco State that they won, 12-4.

The Spartans have begun this season with a 0-2 record. San Jose State travelled to UCLA where they lost by scores of 3-2 and 10-1. The 3rd game of their series was cancelled due to rain.

Speaking of rain, Northern California has been getting a lot of it. There has been so much downpour that the San Jose State Tournament has been moved away from the universities’ Municipal Stadium as the grass and dirt are in no condition to host 6 games in 3 days. So, the venue has changed to turf field... in Stockton, California.

The move from natural grass and dirt to turf is disappointing, but necessary. However, add in playing ball in Stockton rather than San Jose and it might be time to pass around the Zoloft. Even still, the games will still be played. I guess that’s better than no baseball.

If you aren’t in Northern California, you aren’t going to see any of these games. The Mountain West Network was scheduled to broadcast the pair of BYU-SJSU contests, however, that programming has been cancelled due to the change in venue.

The Cougars will play a double header on Thursday. The first game will be against the University of Northern Colorado Bears. The second game will be against SJSU.

On Friday, the Bat Cats will play their 2nd game against Northern Colorado.

On Saturday, the Y finish out the tournament in their 2nd game with the Spartans.

Probable Starters

Thursday, February 23, 2017, Game #1

Maverik Buffo

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Junior	6'2"	195	Right	0-1	7.20	3	2	.286	1.6

vs.

Cody Carroll

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Senior	6'2"	210	Right	0-0	15.43	3	5	.364	3.857

The Cougars ace Maverik Buffo had a tough, but promising outing against Georgia Tech. Buffo pitched 5 innings in his first competitive game after his UCL injury to his throwing arm. Buffo made a couple mistakes. He gave up 2 home run balls and he threw a pick off pitch to 2nd into centerfield. Maverik will have to give the Cougars better starts going forward.

Thursday’s 12:00 PM start against Northern Colorado is a perfect opportunity for Buffo to bounce back and there is plenty of reason to believe he can do just that.

UNC Bears righty Cody Carroll had a rough start against San Francisco. He was shelled over his 2.1 innings appearance. He also struggle with control. He walked 5 batters out of the 16 he faced and he threw a pair of wild pitches.

The Cougars can exploit Carroll if they can have good plate discipline. With 4 games in 3 days, neither team can afford to go to their bullpen early. Otherwise, they could be thinned out by the end of the weekend.

Thursday, February 23, 2017, Game #2

Brady Corless

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Senior	6'2"	210	Right	1-0	3.18	6	0	.333	1.412

vs.

Josh Nashed

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Junior	6'1"	195	Right	0-0	3.60	5	0	.316	1.2

Brady Corless had a solid outing against Kennesaw State last week. 6 strikeouts with 0 walks over 5.2 innings with 2 earned runs will give BYU a chance to win every time.

Meanwhile, Josh Nashed is the top man in the San Jose State rotation. He had a good showing against UCLA going 5 innings waiving 5 batters with 0 walks and giving up 2 runs. Nashed had trouble with leadoff batters. He gave up 3 leadoff hits in 6 innings. In 2 of those scenarios, UCLA were able to get the batter around. This is likely the way the Cougars will need to hurt Nashed — getting the leadoff batter on the bags.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Conner Williams

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA (2016)	K (2016)	BB (2016)	b/avg (2016)	WHIP (2016)
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA (2016)	K (2016)	BB (2016)	b/avg (2016)	WHIP (2016)
Junior	6'3"	205	Right	1-1	4.85	30	40	.224	2.157

vs.

Keenan Lum

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Junior	6'3"	205	Left	0-1	8.31	2	0	.350	1.615

Conner Williams has a cannon for a right arm. He has a blow-by fastball. The issue is locating the pitch. He doesn’t often get hit hard, but Williams gets into trouble by walking batters. It will be interesting to see if Williams was able to reign in his stuff.

Keenan Lum pitched 4.1 innings against San Francisco. He surrendered 5 runs on 7 hits. San Francisco scored in 3 of the 5 innings Lum pitched in. The left-hander was the recorded losing pitcher in a 8-3 game.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Kendall Motes

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA (2016)	K (2016)	BB (2016)	b/avg (2016)	WHIP (2016)
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA (2016)	K (2016)	BB (2016)	b/avg (2016)	WHIP (2016)
Senior	6'2"	210	Right	0-0	9.00	4	3	.357	2.667

vs.

Graham Gomez

Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Class	Height	Weight	Pitching Hand	W-L (2016)	ERA	K	BB	b/avg	WHIP
Senior	6'0"	188	Left	2-5	5.40	32	16	.338	1.617

Kendall Motes made a single appearance before he was shelved by injury. Motes makes his first appearance of the season for the Cougars.

Graham Gomez is the 3rd listed starter for SJSU. Gomez will make his season debut this weekend.

Vanquish The Foe’s projected starting lineup

Position	Player	Bats	Throws	Year	Batting Average	Home Runs	RBI
Position	Player	Bats	Throws	Year	Batting Average	Home Runs	RBI
Catcher	Bronson Larsen	R	R	Senior	.345	12	52
1st Base	Tanner Chauncey	R	R	Senior	.329	2	34
2nd Base	Brennon Anderson	R	R	Junior	.356	6	38
3rd Base	Nate Favero	L	R	Junior	.338	5	41
Shortstop	Daniel Schneemann	L	R	Sophomore	.310	2	34
Left field	Keaton Kringlen	R	R	Sophomore	.343	5	52
Center field	Kyle Dean	R	R	Freshman	.283	6	26
Right field	Brock Hale	R	R	Sophomore	.380	11	42
Designated Hitter	Colton Shaver	R	R	Junior	.287	11	37