Dixie State Red Storm (0-4) vs. No. 4/5 Colorado Mesa Mavericks (2-0)
Feb. 13-15, 2015
Bruce Hurst Field | St. George, Utah
Game Times (Mountain):Friday – 6 p.m. | Saturday (DH) – 11 a.m. | Sunday – 11 a.m.
Radio:Â None
Video:Â SouthernUtahLive.com BaseballLive Stats:Â
Dixie State Baseball StatsTwitter: @DixieAthletics | #DixieBase
DIXIE STATE PROJECTED STARTERS:FRIDAY:Â LHPÂ
Porter Clayton (Idaho Falls, ID/Bonneville)Â
SATURDAY (1):Â RHPÂ
Chance Abrath (Salt Lake City, UT/West)Â
SATURDAY (2):Â LHPÂ
Aaron Pope (Chubbuck, ID/Highland)Â
SUNDAY:Â RHP
Tanner Howell (Boulder City, NV/Boulder City)DIXIE STATE AGAINST CMU:Â Dixie State trails in the all-time series, 13-10. Last year, the Mavericks swept a four-game set at Suplizio Field in Grand Junction. Colorado Mesa has won five straight in the series and nine of the last 11.
WATCH AND FOLLOW LIVESouthernUtahLive.com will have video coverage from Bruce Hurst Field for the entire series. All four of Dixie State's games against CMU this week will feature live stats online, free of charge, with a link available atÂ
DixieAthletics.com.
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DEFENDING NATIONAL RUNNERS-UP START STRONGColorado Mesa University baseball began the season ranked No. 4 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers and No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. CMU was the national runner-up last season, falling to preseason No. 1 Southern Indiana 3-2 in 12 innings in the National Championship game. In the World Series last season, the Mavericks defeated presesason No. 2 Tampa, No. 4 Seton Hill, and No. 24 St. Thomas Aquinas in their march to the championship game. Last week, the Mavs swept two games against UC San Diego by identical 2-0 scores.
TOP-THREE FINISHESDixie State has finished among the top three in the PacWest Conference since becoming league members seven seasons ago (2008-2014), the only PacWest team to have done so. UnderÂ
Chris Pfatenhauer, DSU won the league in 2014 and finished third in 2013 with a 23-13 PacWest record. Prior to that, former coach Mike Littlewood (now at BYU) led Dixie State to conference titles in 2009 and 2011.
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PRESEASON RANKSDixie State baseball was selected by the league's coaches to finish second behind California Baptist in the race for the 2015 PacWest title. Five players –Â
Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho),Â
Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei),Â
John Conquy (Las Vegas, NV/Durango),Â
Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)),Â
Evan Parker (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) – earned spots on the Preseason All-PacWest team. In the NCBWA preseason vote, Dixie State ranked fourth in the West Region behind Chico State, UC San Diego and CBU. Kline, Kamachi and Conquy all took regional team recognitions. Conquy was also named to the NCBWA Preseason All-American Third Team.
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PFATE IN YEAR THREEHead coachÂ
Chris Pfatenhauer was named the 2014 Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year in just his second season at Dixie State by guiding the Red Storm to its third consecutive postseason appearance. Pfatenhauer has led DSU to a 68-34 overall record over the past two seasons, including a 49-19 mark in PacWest competition.
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ROSTER BREAKDOWNDixie State's 34-man roster features 11 seniors, 10 juniors, four sophomores and nine freshmen. The Storm is a geographically diverse team with eight U.S. states and two foreign countries (Canada, Japan) represented. Twelve players hail from Utah and 10 others from Nevada. A pair of players come each from Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and Idaho while single players hail from California and Washington.
UP NEXT ... Dixie State hosts Montana State Billings for a three-game series beginning Thursday, Feb. 19 at Hurst.
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