SALT LAKE CITY — Perennial bottom feeders of the Pac-12, Utah baseball has since moved to the top and is enjoying the limelight of success.
It’s a feeling that is “much more special” having known the insurmountable leap Utah made in a single season to be named the outright Pac-12 champion in a league of excellent baseball programs.
“This group believed, and I think they had it in their minds a long time ago,” head coach Bill Kinneberg said following Utah’s 21-7 victory over Washington Sunday to claim the Pac-12 title. “I couldn’t be more proud. (The team) went through the downs of getting through this league and the grind and how hard it was. They made a commitment and it really showed.”
Utah baseball’s recent success is one of many for Utah athletics: a better conference affiliation has improved talent and has allowed the various athletic programs to flourish. The baseball program is just the latest rendition of the benefits of making the leap to the Pac-12 for Utah. Although no other men’s program has yet claimed a conference title, each has been competitive and in the championship discussion up until the end of their respective seasons.
This last year, the football program reached new heights by winning its most ever games since joining the conference and nearly making it to the Pac-12 championship game to play Stanford. Men’s basketball, too, became a conference favorite and made it to the championship game against the Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 Tournament. Even the women’s basketball program had a great turnaround last season and looks to be trending in a positive direction with its new head coach and new focus.
The Pac-12 is working, and Utah is soaking up the experience and taking other programs hostage, or at least putting them on notice. No longer is Utah the little brother waiting for a full share of the conference rights. Utah now has a seat at the table and is starting to make its own demands as others take note.
In Utah’s first season in the Pac-12, the baseball team won a total of 14 games, six of those coming against Pac-12 opponents. In the Mountain West Conference, Utah was consistently a .500, but never a baseball powerhouse nationally. Fast forward four years and the Utes have become the first men’s team from the university to win a Pac-12 championship, blazing a trail for future recruits and success.
It’s a feat few predicted, given how good the Pac-12 has traditionally been in baseball and the relatively lackluster seasons produced by Utah — finishing in last place each year it has been a part of the conference. When thinking about viable conference contenders in all of the athletic programs at Utah, baseball was admittedly not the first to come to mind.
Even at the beginning of the 2016 season, many doubted Utah would become an upper-echelon team in the conference. Most, including the coaching staff and players, would have likely been content finishing with any other ranking than dead last … again.
In fact, baseball was likely further down the list than the Pac-12 would have liked to have seen when Utah joined the conference in 2010. Football and basketball carried the limelight, while gymnastics was an added bonus, but baseball was essentially an afterthought given the strength of the conference.
But the coaching staff and recruits willing to take a chance on Utah said the Pac-12 affiliation would eventually bring about success to the program.
“I really thought that softball and baseball had the toughest jobs when we moved into the Pac-12, just because of the traditions and the teams that were playing baseball and softball, and where they were nationally. I really felt like those two sports were the furthest behind,” Kinneberg said. “I made this statement when we went into the Pac-12, and people made fun of me, but this gives us relevance in baseball.
“Being in this league attracts good players,” he added. “I think people laughed at me for that because it was baseball, but that’s what’s happened. Because of the affiliation with the Pac-12 we have good baseball players.”
This is not to say that Utah has arrived. If anything, it’s the beginning of an opportunity to get better and challenge teams in the Pac-12 on a consistent basis. Boasting about a Pac-12 championship is a fantastic feat given where Utah has been since joining the conference, but the next step is to win more than half of its games in the regular season, improve its RPI, do well in the NCAA Tournament and prove that the 2016 season was not a fluke with years of sustained winning.
“I think this is going to put us on the map,” senior Kody Davis said. “It hasn’t been an easy five years for us, but that’s what makes it even more fun for us right now. It was a long road, and we’re happy to be here right now.”
Whether for baseball or any of the many athletic programs at the University of Utah, it’s a positive sign that the Pac-12 is working and Utah is in a position for sustained success.
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