BYU NewsNet - The Birth of a Rivalry

The year was 1895. Utah would not be officially recognized as a state until the next year. Wilford Woodruff was president of the church.

Two teams met for a baseball game: Brigham Young Academy and the University of Utah.

It was the first time these two schools had met for an athletic event. It was the first extramural game ever played in the territory. In a game that would epitomize the relationship of these two schools, the finale involved a bench-clearing brawl, and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

A rivalry was born.

In fitting fashion, BYU baseball will once again square off against Utah to renew their rivalry. This time, the Deseret First Duel is on the line.

Traditionally, BYU has played well against Utah, holding an impressive 206-90-1 advantage in the rivalry. BYU has not lost a regular season series to Utah since 2002.

Whenever these two schools face each other, pride and bragging rights are on the line. However, there is added motivation going into this weekend's series as both schools are still in position to win the inaugural Deseret First Duel trophy.

"We always want to play well against Utah," BYU coach Vance Law said. "We need to go up there and take care of business. It is important for our guys, not only just for Utah, but also for the game momentum going into the tournament."

Going into this weekend's series, BYU holds a slight 31-28.5 edge in the duel standings over Utah.

At one point during the academic school year, BYU held a 21-6 advantage over Utah in the duel standings, but the Utes have since closed the gap.

With each baseball game worth 1.5 points, BYU technically only needs one win to clinch the trophy.

However, simply one win over the Utes would not be satisfying for the BYU players.

"[One] win would not be good enough," said Jake Wortham, a pitcher for the Cougars. "Anything less than three this weekend would not be up to par for us."

Adding to the motivation to win, with BYU losing to SDSU last weekend, and Utah defeating Air Force, the Cougars fell a game behind the Utes for fifth place in the Mountain West Conference standings.

However, BYU was defeated by Utah 9-7 earlier this season in Provo. It was the first time the Cougars have lost to the Utes in Provo since March of 2006.

"There's a lot of pride on the line," Cougar catcher J.T. Musso said. "It's a big rivalry and there is really no friendship between us. It's definitely going to be interesting to see what happens."