The BYU softball team will face Southern Utah in a doubleheader Tuesday in its first match up against an in-state team this season.
BYU has an impressive all-time record against in-state teams. When facing the five Utah universities, BYU has a record of 115-22, with 16 of those losses coming against in-state rivals, the University of Utah. The Cougars played Utah, Utah State, SUU, UVU and Weber State last year and outscored them 72-10 to go undefeated in all nine games.
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“We’ve been a really good team over the last five or six years and I think that’s a large part of why we’ve had success,” Eakin said. “We’ve just had a solid program and a solid group of girls.”
The Cougars have a record of 37-3 against SUU and faced the Thunderbirds three times last year, outscoring them 21-5 to win all three games.
Sophomore pitcher Tori Almond pitched and earned wins in two of the three games, registering 15 strike outs and giving up only three runs to the T-Birds. Almond is currently 6-2 on the season with a 2.64 ERA.
In only the third week of season play, BYU is 6-2 and is currently on a 27-game winning streak at home.
Almond said she believes the preseason really helped the team to prepare for the season.
“We had a pretty tough preseason but I think that its helped us a lot,” Almond said. “And right now we’re just finally getting into the groove of things and starting to play the ball that we’re capable of. So I think that we’re doing really well and if we just keep playing the way we have, we’ll have a good season.”
The seniors are continuing to lead the way for BYU, providing leadership both on and off the field. Delaney Willard and Stacie Toney are both hitting above .400 and together have put out almost half of the teams’ RBI output for the season, with 70 out of 155. Jessica Dugas has put together a number of multiple-hit games this season and has had by far the most at-bats of anyone on the team this season, with 106.
BYU will play SUU at 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday, before a weekend series against No. 11 Hawaii. Only the second game will be broadcast live on BYUtv, but both will be available live on game tracker.
