The Daily Utah Chronicle from Salt Lake City, Utah • 10

Tbt P3y Of islelr. Friday, My 17, FORT 0 ii 5 flrst-round game in Provo, 14-13. With the win, the Utes face BYU in the second round of the double-elimination tournament Friday at 1 p.m. Utah shortstop Mike Dandos gets ready to take the throw as New Mexico's John Snyder hits the dirt in WAC Playoff action Thursday. The Utes won their BYU Friday i ty by John Youngren Chronicle staff PROVO In a game with a final score of 14-13, you probably wouldn't expect the key to the contest to be the pitching.

Especially not with the Utes. Ah, but it's a funny game, this baseball. Because behind Nathan Nelson, the Utes managed not only to come back but to hang on through two innings and hold off New Mexico for a first-round win in the WAC playoffs here Thursday afternoon. "Hopefully, we put a little respect for us into the teams from the (WAC's) South. We can play the game of baseball," Ute Coach Lonnie Keeter said.

The win will send the Utes up against Northern WAC rival BYU here Friday at 1 p.m. Nelson, coming into the game for Mark Duran in the seventh, didn't give up a hit or a run in keeping the Lobos at bay and retired the side in the ninth for his fifth save of the year. But it wasn't all so easy for the Utes. In fact, they were lucky Nelson had a game to save. After jumping out to a quick 6-0 lead in the opening two innings on a collection of scrap singles in the first and a Chris Shultis three-run homer in the second, Utah bats went to sleep for four innings while allowing Ute starter Curtis Carman to get racked around for seven runs.

The Lobos scored five in the bottom of the second when John Snyder pounded a two run homer and Jay Slotnick connected on a three-run shot. An inning later, Snyder sent another one over the fence, chasing Carman from the game and sending the Utes, who had been leading 6-0, back into the dugout down 7-6. After New Mexico lopped on another pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings, Utah's Fernando Carmona connected for his 12th homer of the year in the top of the seventh to draw Utah back within six. Pinch-hitter Brad Helmer led off with a single; Troy Davis and Mike Barnett walked to load the bases. Shultis popped a high fly that dropped between three Lobo fielders down the right field line.

Just like that, the Utes scored a pair. Shortstop Mike Dandos singled, scoring Barnett, Mike Moore got on, scoring Shultis, Rod Gust got on, scoring Dandos and Moore. Just like that, the game was tied at 13. "This team has depended so much on its hitting all year that if we get down by five or six runs, it doesn't bother us," Keeter said. After Duran struck out the Lobo leadofT man in the eighth, a New Mexico single chased him and Keeter brought in Nelson.

The freshman pulled his teammates out of the jam with a quick chopper to the shortstop and fly to Moore in right. "Nate's been the man in that spot all year and there was no question that we had to go with what got us there," Keeter said. So with things back up to them, the Utes went to work. Barnett walked and went to second when Lobo second baseman Jim Logan overthrew first. Shultis popped a single into right, and after Dandos struck out, Barnett scored on a short fly into left field.

Utah 14, New Mexico 13. Nelson moved threw the bottom of the inning like clockwork. He got Greg Hall on a hard shot to deep shortstop, he got Brian Hubbard on a tapper to second and he got Snyder he of the two home runs on a tailing line drive into right field. "Even if I had to walk (Snyder) I was going to keep it low," Nelson said. "It was a 3-1 fastball, which is not my best pitch, but it's what you've got to throw." Ute rightfielder Mike Moore turns and waves his glove after spearing the final out in Thursday's WAC Playoff game.

The Utes will go on to face BYU in second-round action Friday. 'Heaoty' Utes jusi won't give up PROVO Just what is the deal with the Utes when they get into the post-season playoffs? Earlier in the year, the Runnin' Utes played a mediocre regular season, but hit their stride in the WAC basketball playoffs and pulled off a couple of upset wins. ON SPORTS Potor Bohlo ASU trips Utah; game two Friday Special to the Chronicle TEMPE, Aria. Arizona State darkened Utah's hopes of a trip to the Softball World Series here Thursday night by tripping the Lady Utes 2-1 in the opening game of a best-of-three series. The two national powerhouses ASU is ranked fifth while the Lady Utes are eighth battled to a 1-1 tie following seven regulation innings.

The Sun Devils then broke the ice by scoring in the bottom half of the eighth. The game was won on an international tie-breaker rule, which allows a team to start any extra inning with a runner on second base. The series remains undecided, though, as the pair will square off again Friday night. Game two is set for 7 p.m. and a third game, if needed, is set for 9 p.m.

The series winner will advance to the next week's eight-team World Series. Pipi Hollingsworth scored Utah's only run in the seventh inning. Hollingsworth, who reached via a free pass from winning pitcher Laura Houle, scored on Michele Townsend's triple. Ute hurler Teri Richardson, 21-5, picked up the loss. Utah never gave up Thursday, though it would have been easy to do just that.

Utah built a 6-0 lead after just two innings, but fell back and eventually trailed 1 3-7. Still, the Utes knew they could, and would, win it all the time. The Ute swingers kept battling even though it looked like they would never break through against New Mexico's ace hurler Dean Duane, who came into the game with a 14-0 record. Sure, the Utes pounded Duane for six runs in two I frames, but the all-American settled down and held the Utes at bay until the eighth when Utah exploded for six runs to tie the game. Ute coach Lonnie Keeter said Duane had been ranked as possibly the No.

1 hurler in the nation going into Thursday's game. "From what we did to him, I don't even think he'd be the No. 1 pitcher in the WAC," Keeter said after the game. The Utes will now move into Friday's second round against host BYU in a 1 p.m. game on the Cougars' field and in front of the Cougars' fans.

No doubt, Utah will be a tremendous underdog against the Y. The Cougars have beaten the Utes in four of five games this year and on paper "should" beat the Utes again Friday. But games aren't played on paper just ask the New Mexico Lobos. Thursday the Ute baseball team came back from a 13-7 deficit to. upset heavily-favored New Mexico here in the WAC playoffs.

Like the Runnin' Utes, the baseballers completed the regular season with only a fair won-loss mark, though they won a Ute-record number of games. Also like the Runnin' Utes, the baseball team was thought to have no chance to advance in the playoffs. Both teams, however, fooled the "experts" and did (or are doing) better than anybody thought. Anybody, that is, except themselves. What separates the Utes from the rest of the WAC schools is emotion.

Traditionally, Utah teams don't always have the talent to compete against the top WAC teams. To quote an oft-heard cliche, what the Utes do have is "heart.".