OCR Text |
Show -- - -.«¦»- •¦•*¦• . % , , .". JjA i J? . ;•- _ mi i I.* -¦' • •• IiilSl|lliipB;ii!|»i.....(iftisS......&!!«»».,,. •%, I t;A;'Ta*fi#f"w» i#f^ - ^ V liipillllllllltlpt^ lS«Xl^tiM Baseball crown lost in playoff Utah began the 1958 diamond season with what was described by coaches as possibly its deepest team in history. It had lost only six men from the '57 Western Division Championship squad and pros-pects were good with an even stronger pitching staff. The leading chucker for the Utes panned out to be rangy Blaine Sylvester. He spearheaded Utah's mound attack in losing but one game during the entire season. Just as Utah was defeated by St. John's University in the NIT, Coach Pres Sum-merhays was putting on the final touches or preparation before the initial contest of the Skyline race. Lynn Chidester was Pres' choice to plug the gap at short-stop, while speedy Gary Totland filled the keystone sack to complete the double-play combination. The Redskins plunged into the Skyline race and emerged on May 29 with a 4 win 2 loss record after dropping the second of a twin bill to Montana. This left Utah in a tie with BYU for the Western Division title. On May 5 Utah took two from USU only to have the Cougars from Provo dito the feat with Montana. The last two games of the season for the championship contenders were in direct clash. Utah took the first and then lost the second on May 17. This called for a playoff on May 21. Big Syl . . . had not lost a game all season and Ute chances were good, but the Cats ended the story 17-2. 335 |