Air Force Academy

Falcons Travel To Utah For Final Mountain West Conference Road Series of 2005
The Air Force baseball team (6-39, 1-23 6th MWC) travels to Salt Lake City, Utah, to take on the Utes of Utah (17-28, 9-15 5th MWC) for a three game set from Fri.-Sun., May 13-15. Live stats will be available for the Friday and Saturday games, which will be played at Franklin Covey Stadium. Sunday's game will be played at Ute Field with no livestats.

The Falcons
Air Force is 6-39 on the season and 1-23 in Mountain West Conference play. The Falcons were swept by UNLV last weekend at Falcon Field. UNLV took Friday's game 20-1, Saturday's game 24-15 and Sunday's game 17-3.

The Falcons are batting .267 as a team. Bolt headlines the AFA offense with a .317 average and 10 home runs and an .444 on base percentage. The Air Force pitching staff has a 12.66 earned run average, led by junior righty Paul Pratt, who is 2-9 with 39 strikeouts in 57.1 innings pitched.

Head Coach Mike Hutcheon
Mike Hutcheon begins his second year as the head coach of the Falcons. Prior to his stint at the Academy, Hutcheon spent the last four years at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. and compiled a record of 130-78 during his tenure there. In 2002, Hutcheon was named the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Coach of the year after leading Bethel to the 2002 NCCAA national title. Prior to his stay at Bethel, Hutcheon coached at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., for five seasons where he went 109-62. Through ten seasons as a head coach, Hutcheon has compiled a 251-228 record and is 12-88 at Air Force.

Scouting Utah
Utah enters the weekend with a 17-28 record. Last week, the Utes were swept by San Diego State. Bill Kinneberg, who coached the Utes in 1996, returns for his second stint as the head coach in 2005. The Utes, who are in fifth place in MWC with a 9-15 conference record, are batting .320 as a team, led by soph. infielder Jay Brossman, who is batting .386 with seven homers and 44 RBI. The Utah pitching staff has an earned run average of 6.82 and is led by junior left-hander Jason Price, who is 3-7 with 65 K's in 89.1 innings pitched.

AFA-Utah/Notes/Etc.
Utah and Air Force have met 121 times, with the Utes leading the series 85-36...Last season, Utah won all six regular-season games, five of which were played in Salt Lake City due to two snowouts at the Academy...Paul Pratt is a native of Tooele, Utah and attended Tooele HS...Utah features five players on its roster from Colorado...The Utes also have five players on its roster from Lamar CC in Lamar, Colo....Ute junior RHP Chad Cullers is a Colorado Springs native, having attended Lamar CC and Air Academy HS...Ute soph. Tyler Kmetko attended Brophy prep HS in Arizona where AF soph. Geno Salazar went to HS until his senior year when he transferred to Mountain Ridge HS.

AFA-Utah: The Last Meeting
Utah downed Air Force 22-3 and 32-4 in two blowout wins in a Mountain West Conference baseball doubleheader at Falcon Field Saturday afternoon. The Utes completed the sweep by setting conference records for most runs and hits (34) in a game.

In game one, Utah (11-19, 4-8), banged out 22 hits as it rolled to a 22-3 win. Eight Utes recorded two or more hits, and four had three hits. Jay Brossman led the way, going 3-for-7 with two doubles and seven RBI.

Leading 7-2 after the fourth inning, Utah broke the game open by scoring four runs in the fifth and six more in the sixth. The Utes added six more runs in the ninth.

Ute starter Matt Crockett improved to 3-6 on the season, allowing two runs on five hits, while fanning three in seven innings pitched. Air Force starter Paul Pratt, a Tooele, Utah, native fell to 2-7, as he allowed 10 runs, seven earned, on eight hits and three strikeouts in five innings pitched.

The Falcons (5-23, 0-9) had six hits in the game, with Price Paramore going 1-for-3 with a pair of RBI.

In game two, Utah cranked out 34 hits and ended the game in marathon fashion with 13 runs in the final inning to win 32-4. Air Force tied a school record by allowing 14 base hits in the ninth inning alone.

The Utes had 10 players record multiple hits, with seven recording three or more. Brossman went 4-for-6, Doug Beck went 5-for-6 and Seth Tartler went 4-for-7.

Utah scored in all but two innings, tallying six runs in the first inning, including seven in the fifth. Brossman and Jake Waldram (grand slam in 9th) also homered in the game.

Brian Lane (3-3) earned the win in relief, striking out six while allowing just one hits in four innings of work. Utah starter Chad Cullers went three innings and faced the minimum nine batters.

Air Force starter John Meyers fell to 0-4 on the season, allowing five runs on four hits before being removed from the game in the first inning. The Falcons used a season-high seven pitchers in the game.

AFA had four hits in the game, with Geno Salazar recording two RBI.

Notes: Geno Salazar had a base hit in game one to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, but went 0-for-4 in game two to snap the streak...Clayton Couch made his first appearance of the season after recovering from a nagging shoulder injury to pitch 1.2 innings of relief.

Hitting/Offensive Notes
The Falcons batted .262 in the UNLV series...Nathan DeRohan was the hottest Falcon hitter, going 5-for-9 (.556) against the Rebels...DeRohan, Jon Polston and Dustin Smith homered in the series...The Falcons failed to steal a base in the series...The 15 runs scored in game two were the most runs the Falcons have scored against a conference opponent this year...The Falcons scored five runs in an inning twice in game two vs. UNLV...Dale Kasel hit his third triple of the year.

Pitching Notes
The Falcons pitching staff had a 20.00 ERA for the UNLV series...No Falcon starter pitched over four innings...Mike Garrison and Kyle Yamamoto appeared in two games in the series...John Meyers went three innings in relief in game three...Paul Vignola went 2.2 innings in game two...the Falcons surrendered 16 homers in the series.

Fielding Notes
The Falcons fielded .958 against UNLV, committing eight errors over the weekend...Jon Polston lis tied for first in the conference with 17 base runners thrown out...Nathan DeRohan and Geno Salazar are among the top 10 in the conference in assists...Karl Bolt is fourth in the conference in putouts.

Probable Starters
Pos. Player (Yr./BA/HR/RBI/SB)
1B Karl Bolt (So./.321/10/30/2) Belted game-winning walk-off home run vs. BYU
2B Dustin Smith (Jr./.309/3/18/1) Can also play short, third and the corner outfield positions
SS Geno Salazar (So./.288/4/21/1) Third on team with 21 RBI and four homers
3B Nathan DeRohan (Sr./.254/7/17/3) Leads team with three homers in MWC play
LF Josh Meents (Fr./.114/0/3/0) Freshman starting to show some pop in bat
CF Reid Lamson (Sr./.304/1/16/15) Leads conference with 15 stolen bases
RF Matt Ghigna (Fr./.289/1/24/8) Makes return after missing two weeks with sprained ankle
C Jon Polston (So./.230/3/6/3) Has started 30 games at catcher; homered vs. UNLV
DH Dale Kasel (Sr./.207/2/10/1) Homered vs. UNLV
Pos. Player (Yr./W-L/IP/BB/K)
SP Clayton Couch (Jr./0-2/21.2/11/13) Slowly returning to '04 form after recovering from injury
SP Kyle DePierre (Jr./1-3/29.0/19/31) Earned first-career win vs. BYU
SP Andrew Goss (So./0-5/31.0/12/17) Just 12 walks issued in 31 innings of work
CL Sam Rosener (Fr./1-1/25.1/14/17) Leads team with two saves

Bolt Named to Service Academies All-Tournament Team
Sophomore first baseman Karl Bolt was named to the 2005 Service Academies Spring Classic All-Tournament Team for his efforts this past weekend. Bolt led the Falcons by batting .375 over the weekend hitting two home runs at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.

Bolt, Pratt Sweep MWC Player & Pitcher of the Week Honors
Karl Bolt and Paul Pratt were named MWC Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively on Feb. 7. Bolt was 6-for-13 (.462) with a pair of home runs, 4 runs scored and 6 RBI in a 4-game series vs. Southern Utah. Pratt, from Tooele, Utah, tossed a complete-game 5-hitter in Air Force's opening game vs. Southern Utah, giving the Falcons an 8-2 victory. In his first appearance since serving a two-year mission, he struck out 7 batters, while allowing 2 earned runs and 2 walks.

Up Next: New Mexico
The Falcons conclude the 2005 regular season with a three game set, Thurs.-Sat., May 19-21, at Falcon Field. Five Falcon seniors will be playing their final games at Falcon Field.

Falcons Announce 2005 Radio Schedule
Eight regular-season games, plus the Mountain West Conference Tournament will be broadcast in Colorado Springs on The Sports Animal AM 1300. Jay Ritchie, in his eighth season of Air Force baseball, will do the play-by-play. Dave Toller will handle the color commentary. The pregame show begins 20 minutes before the first pitch.

Telephone: The radio broadcast can also be heard on TeamLine by dialing 1-800-846-4700. The team access code is 0671. The service is available on subscription basis only.

Internet: The broadcast can also be heard on the internet at www.AirForceSports.com. The service is on a subscription basis only by clicking on the "Bolt Action" box on the front page.

2005 Air Force Baseball Broadcast Schedule (The Sports Animal AM 1300)
Date Opponent Game Time
Sat. May 21 New Mexico Noon
Wed.-Sat. May 25-28 MWC Tournament TBA