Diamond Dawgs Visit SLC For Weekend Matchup With Utah - University of Washington Athletics (2024)

SEATTLE –Having played the last five games at home, Washington returns to the road for the weekend, taking on Utah in a weekend series at Smith's Ballpark in Salt Lake City Friday through Sunday.

All three games will air on Pac-12 Washington and Pac-12 Mountain, with Friday and Sunday's games also featuring on the main Pac-12 Network channel. Links to live coverage are available at GoHuskies.com.

DAWG BITES
• The Huskies won last season's series in Seattle, two games to three, but dropped 2-of-3 in SLC in 2022.

• The Huskies are coming off of an 11-2 victory over Portland on Tuesday, matching UW's largest margin of victory of the season.

• Husky starter Max Fraser was perfect on the mound Tuesday, with the true freshman retiring all 15 men he faced.

• Cam Clayton led the Dawgs offensively in the game, matching his career high with four hits and scoring three runs.

• Clayton has registered multiple hits in three-straight games, his first three such games since March 23 at Oregon State.

• Aiva Arquette, Braeden Terry and Jeter Ybarra also posted multiple base knocks.

• Missing the first 26 games of the season due to injury, Terry has started four straight for UW.

• Driving in three runs Tuesday, seven of Cooper Whitton's 12 career RBIs have come over the last two games.

• Tuesday's win was the fourth time the Dawgs have scored double digit runs, three of which have come in the last 11 games.

• The Huskies are 8-1 when scoring at least six runs in 2024.

SERIES HISTORY VS. UTAH
Washington leads the all-time series with Utah 26-12, owning identical 13-5 records against the Utes both in Salt Lake City and Seattle. While Washington took 2-of-3 games at Husky Ballpark in 2023, the Utes have won three of the last five meetings. Prior to those five, Washington had dominated the series, winning 12-of-13 previous matchups.

CAM RISING
Going 4-for-5 at the plate Tuesday night against Portland, Cam Clayton has posted eight base hits over the last three games, raising his season batting average nearly 50 full points. Clayton is batting .727 over the three-game stretch.

BOMBS AWAY
Arguably the hottest batter in the Husky lineup at the moment, half of AJ Guerrero's last 18 base hits have left the park for home runs. Over his last five games, the Fife, Washington, native is leading the Huskies with a .476 batting average, 10 hits, eight runs, 12 RBIs and five runs.

CRYSTAL CLEAN D
Washington owns the second best fielding percentage in the nation at .984, having committed just two errors over the last 11 games, including none in the last five. Clean play on defense has been crucial for UW, with the Huskies winning just one game in 2024 in which they've committed an error. Husky shortstop Cam Clayton has been tagged for just one error all season, owning a .992 fielding percentage.

TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE
Washington ranks 17th in the nation at 0.97 double plays per game, having turned 29 double plays overall. The Huskies have turned at least one twin killing in 18-of-30 games, posting multiple double plays nine times.

G-MONEY
For much of the season, sophom*ore reliever Grant Cunningham has been nearly untouchable. The Seattle native has surrendered just one run over his last eight appearances, totaling 21.1 innings. Coming on in both of UW's wins over UCLA this past weekend, Cunningham retired all 12 Bruins he faced. The right hander ranks 10th in nation with a 1.67 ERA, sitting ninth nationally with a 0.87 WHIP.

GOING STREAKING
Jeter Ybarra is currently riding a 13-game hitting streak, one game shy of the Huskies' longest streak of the season. Meanwhile, Aiva Arquette has posted a hit in 11 straight games.

EXTRA! EXTRA!
Of the 39 base knocks Jeter Ybarra has recorded in 2024, 13 of them have gone for extra bases. The redshirt-junior has racked up 11 doubles and a pair of home runs this season, already five extra-base hits more than he produced over the entirety of 2023.

Following UW's series win at No. 14 Texas, Ybarra became the first Husky to be named the Pac-12 Player of the Week since 2019, when Braiden Ward received the honor. Ybarra batted .636 during the series with five RBIs and three runs scored. In game one in Austin, Ybarra was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with three doubles, becoming the first UW player with a five-hit game since 2019.

WORKING OVERTIME
After entering the season with no career outing at UW going longer than 1.2 innings over the past two seasons, Gianluca Shinn has made three relief appearances of 2.0 frames or longer in 2024, including a career-long 4.0 innings versus Long Beach State.

SOPhom*oRE YEAR
Playing into the 17th inning at Long Beach State and completing 15 frames versus Santa Clara, Washington has played in the two longest games in college baseball this season. Rice has also played in two 15-inning games.

PRE-APPROVED
One year after Johnny Tincher was the lone UW representative on the Preseason All-Pac-12 Team, three Huskies were named to the list ahead of the 2024 season. Turning down a potential MLB Draft selection to return to Montlake, shortstop Cam Clayton earned a spot after batting .325 with 32 extra base hits a season ago. Leading the team with a .345 average in 2023, AJ Guerrero joined Clayton, adding a steady outfield glove to his accomplished bat. Reliever Josh Emanuels rounded out the Dawgs honored, collecting six saves and a 3-2 record on the hill a year ago.

SAFE HANDS
A year after leading the Huskies with six saves, redshirt-junior relief arm Josh Emanuels was named to the 2024 NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List. Emanuels was one of five Pac-12 relievers to be named to the watch list.

DRAFT DEPARTURES
Washington had a number of key pieces to replace after six Huskies were drafted in the 2023 MLB Draft, the most in a single class for UW since the Dawgs saw six players drafted in 2019. Kiefer Lord was the first Husky selected, picked in the third round by the Baltimore Orioles. At 86th overall, Lord was UW's highest draftee since Austin Rei was drafted 81st overall in 2015. Case Matter was also drafted on Day 2, going to the Texas Rangers in the 10th round. Stu Flesland III was next off the board to the Colorado Rockies in the 11th round. Johnny Tincher joined Flesland in the 11th round, selected by the Cleveland Guardians, while Will Simpson was picked by the Oakland Athletics in the 15th round. Finishing things off was Coby Morales, who had his rights selected by the New York Yankees in the 18th round.

D3 DIAMONDS
For the second straight year, Washington has hit the NCAA Division III ranks to add to its pitching staff through the transfer portal. The Huskies added right-hander Spencer Dessart out of Middlebury College in Vermont, who posted a 4.32 ERA with 63 strikeouts over 50 innings. Last off season, UW brought in D3 transfer Kiefer Lord out of Minnesota's Carleton College, with Lord going on to be a third round draft choice in the 2023 MLB Draft.

DRAFT KINGS
Washington had seven players featured this offseason when D1Baseball released their Pac-12 MLB Prospect Rankings for the 2024 and 2025 draft classes.

D1Baseball Pac-12 MLB Draft Prospect Rankings
Cam Clayton - 2024 - No. 8 (No. 68 nationally)
AJ Guerrero - 2024 - No. 16
Josh Emanuels - 2024 - No. 45
Jeter Ybarra - 2024 - No. 48
Aiva Arquette - 2025 - No. 6 (No. 51 nationally)
Sam Boyle - 2025 - No. 21
Grant Cunningham - 2025 - No. 25

YOUNG BUCKS
The Huskies landed three rookie players on D1Baseball's Pac-12 Impact Freshman Rankings, announced during the preseason.

D1Baseball Pac-12 Impact Freshman Rankings
Blake Wilson - No. 14
Carson Ohland - No. 22
Carston Pearson - No. 23

TOP DAWGS
Washington had two players recognized in D1Baseball's national position rankings. Cam Clayton checked in as the No. 8 shortstop in the country, while AJ Guerrero was tabbed at No. 29 among outfielders.

IT CAN WAIT
For the second year in a row, a Washington commit turned down the opportunity to sign with an MLB team to join the Husky roster after Blake Wilson was drafted in the 20th round of the 2023 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals but still made his way to Montlake. Husky sophom*ore Aiva Arquette was a 18th round draft choice by the Arizona Diamondbacks before coming to campus.

A DECADE ON THE DIAMOND
Opened on March 21, 2014, Washington will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the inaugural game played at Husky Ballpark. The Huskies are 161-105 all-time at the stadium.

FAMILIAR FACES
The UW roster features two newcomers with previous Pac-12 ties. Tommy Brandenburg, a junior college graduate of Central Arizona College, spent his true freshman season at Oregon, making eight pitching appearances and four starts. Meanwhile, catcher Colton Bower redshirted the 2023 season at Washington State.

PRO PEDIGREE
Jason Ellison, a six-year Major League Baseball player with the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers, was added to Jason Kelly's staff as UW's hitting and outfield coordinator during the offseason following the departure of Billy Boyer. Ellison, a native of Port Orchard, Washington, had worked as an MLB scout since 2011 with the Los Angeles Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations.

Kelly also promoted Jake Silverman and Mike Gange to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, respectively.

WELCOME BACK, JOE
One of the all-time great Huskies, Joe DeMers has returned to Montlake as an undergraduate assistant. An All-Pac-12 standout, DeMers led the Dawgs to their first-ever College World Series in 2018, delivering a 1.80 ERA over four postseason starts. In addition to all-conference laurels, DeMers was awarded the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove. He was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

GROWING 'EM LOCAL
Well over half of the Husky roster, 24 of 41 players overall, are homegrown talents from the state of Washington. Of those 24 local products, 16 hail from the greater Seattle Metropolitan area. Below is a breakdown of the counties UW's Washington natives call home.

UW Washington Natives by County
King County - 15
Clark County - 4
Cowlitz County - 1
Kitsap County - 2
Pierce County - 1
Snohomish County - 1
Spokane County - 1

PAC-12 SWAN SONG
Washington is competing in its final Pac-12 season before joining the Big Ten Conference in 2025. UW was one of the four founding members of what started in December of 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, which eventually grew to become the Pac-12.

For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.