PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball looks to conclude its 2024 season on a high note with its final home game on Tuesday versus Grand Canyon followed by three games in a weekend series at Kansas State May 16-18.
| Grand Canyon (32-19) at BYU (19-29) | Miller Park | Provo, UT | |||
| Date & Time (MDT) | Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
| Tuesday, May 14 at 6 p.m. | Big 12 Now on ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
| BYU (19-29, 6-21) at Kansas State (29-21, 13-14) | Tointon Family Stadium | Manhattan, KS | |||
| Date & Time (CDT) | Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
| Thursday, May 16 at 6 p.m. | Big 12 Now on ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
| Friday, May 17 at 6 p.m. | Big 12 Now on ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
| Saturday, May 18 at 4 p.m. | Big 12 Now on ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
WEEK THIRTEEN REVIEW
The Cougars began the week with third baseman Easton Jones driving in four runs in a 4-2 crosstown victory over Utah Valley on May 7. Jones has proved a mainstay for BYU in 2024 as the only player to start all 48 games in the same position. The sophomore from Lehi, Utah leads the Cougars in batting average (.286), hits (54) and home runs (14). Jones ranks third in the Big 12 with 10 of his 14 homers coming in conference play.
Despite three losses to Cincinnati in the weekend series, BYU’s young talent continued to show their upside.
True freshman Crew McChesney has started the Cougars’ last eight games and broke out in week 13, batting .500 with three walks, three doubles, two runs scored and an RBI. On Saturday vs Cincinnati, McChesney hit in the leadoff spot for the first time in his BYU career and responded by going 4-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and an RBI. Defensively, McChesney has locked down centerfield for BYU with 18 putouts over the last six games, including an acrobatic, double-denying snag at Utah Valley.
Designated hitter Kuhio Aloy garnered the Big 12’s Week 12 Newcomer of the Week honor and followed it up with another double, run scored and two RBI on the week. The true freshman maintains a team-leading 38 RBI and is tied for the Big 12 lead with seven sacrifice flies on the season.
Leftfielder Ryker Schow continues to get on base and get home for the Cougars with three more runs scored a week ago. The freshman has recorded at least one run in 11 of the last 17 games, including four multi-run outings.
With a 6-21 frecord in the league play, BYU was eliminated from the 2024 Big 12 tournament last week. The Cougars have faced teams currently ranked in the D1Baseball.com Top-25 poll over three of the last six weeks, including Big 12 regular season champion Oklahoma who now ranks 12th nationally as well as Oklahoma State at No. 19 and Texas 25th.
Despite a series of setbacks this season, the Cougars’ pair of 7-5 wins in Austin have aged well. Since BYU dealt Texas two losses in three games on April 4 and 6, the Longhorns have won 13 of their last 20 games, including four combined wins over the Sooners and Cowboys.
KNOW THE FOE
GRAND CANYON (32-19): BYU and Grand Canyon meet for the 77th time on Tuesday and the 32nd in Provo. The Cougars lead the all-time series 43-33 and 23-8 at home with wins in six of the last 10 meetings. BYU last hosted GCU in a 4-1 Cougar win on May 9, 1998. GCU won the series’ first matchup 10-6 on April 3, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tuesday marks the second BYU-GCU matchup in 2024 with the Cougars falling to the Lopes 6-2 in game three of the MLB Desert Invitational at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona on Feb. 19. BYU took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a pair of RBI courtesy Easton Jones and Bryker Hurdsman. GCU then closed the game with six unanswered runs on seven hits. Candon Dahle made his first-career start for the Cougars in the game with 4.2 innings pitched and five strikeouts.
Since the February meeting, the Lopes have gone on to secure a fourth-straight WAC Regular Season Championship with wins in 10 of their last 12 games, including a 24-8 defeat of now No. 14-ranked Arizona on April 30. The Lopes are coming off two wins in a three-game series (10-4, 3-2, 3-4) versus Abilene Christian May 10-12.
GCU becomes the third top-4 WAC team BYU has faced in each of its last three midweek matchups. The Cougars beat ACU 8-6 at Miller Park on April 29, then Utah Valley 4-2 in Orem on May 7.
Utility player Tyler Wilson leads GCU in batting (.376), runs (45), hits (73), home runs (13) and RBI (53). The Lopes are led by second-year head coach Gregg Wallis (69-40). The 2023 WAC Coach of the Year previously spent 11 years as an assistant at GCU following a three-year assistant coaching stint at Tennessee.
KANSAS STATE (29-21, 13-14): Thursday marks the 10th all-time meeting between the Cougars and Wildcats. The series is closely contested with Kansas State holding a 5-4 edge overall, and each team going 4-0 at their respective homes. The Wildcats won the first all-time meeting 7-1 at the Riverside Baseball Invitational in Riverside, California on March 25, 1971. The Cougars have won four of the last six in the series, including a 13-10 win in the last meeting on April 14, 2010 in Provo.
Pete Hughes is in his sixth season at the helm as Kansas State head coach. Hughes has compiled a 727-575-3 career head-coaching record with previous stints at Oklahoma (2013-17), Virginia Tech (2007-13) and Boston College (1999-2006).
The Wildcats went 35-24 (13-11) and finished fifth in the Big 12 in 2023 followed by a fifth-place selection in the 2024 preseason poll.
Both BYU and Kansas State began the season with three games at the MLB Desert Invitational in Mesa, Arizona. The Cougars went 1-2 with losses to Ohio State and GCU following an 8-1 win over USC. The Wildcats won games versus Boston College and Georgetown after a loss to Cal.
Through 27 league games in 2024, Kansas State is tied for seventh in the Big 12 with TCU. The Wildcats have slipped to 13-14 with seven losses in their last 12 games, including going 1-2 in two of their last three conference series. Kansas State is coming off a 1-2 weekend at West Virginia (4-3, 0-13, 5-12) May 10-12, and will not play a midweek game following the cancellation of a Tuesday contest with South Dakota State.
Infielder Brady Day leads the Wildcats in batting (.337), hits (64) and RBI (48) while outfielder Brendan Jones holds a team-leading 54 runs. Jones also leads the Big 12 with 35 stolen bases and 45 walks. The Kansas State pitching staff is headlined by Owen Boerema and Jackson Wentworth. Boerema leads the league with 15 games started and ranks sixth with 83 strikeouts while Wentworth holds the Big 12’s third-best opponent batting average at .203.
BYU and Kansas State are two of the top-3 triple-producing teams in the Big 12, with the Cougars recording 15 triples on the season to the Wildcats’ 14. In conference play, BYU ranks fifth in team fielding percentage at .976 while Kansas State ranks 12th at .967.