SALT LAKE CITY — The temperature read 71 degrees at first pitch, the sun was still throwing light off the Wasatch Mountains behind right field, and the Utah Utes were already in a hole. Baylor’s Hunter Snow had punched an RBI single to right in the top of the first to put the Bears up 1-0. The University of Utah had been on its new campus ballpark for one season and was 26-22 trying to climb out of ninth place in the Big 12.
Then Cameron Gurney hit a baseball 456 feet.
Gurney’s two-run home run in the bottom of the first — exit velocity 104 mph, over the right field wall, his seventh of the season — gave Utah a 3-1 lead it would lose, retake, and finally hold onto by a single run when reliever Justin Abercrombie got the final out with the tying run on base. Utah 8, Baylor 7. Series opener in the bag. One day left of regular-season baseball before Surprise, Arizona.
"This is a no-doubter, it's out of here!" 🔥#GoUtes x @GurneyCameron pic.twitter.com/1qMUWaKYdH
— Utah Baseball (@utahbaseball) May 15, 2026
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For Gurney — a four-year Ute, a first baseman, and a Canadian who grew up watching Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic — the swing wasn’t a guess. Utah’s hitting staff had walked him through the scouting report before the at-bat.
“As I was in the on-deck circle, [the hitting coach] pulled me over and gave me a rundown,” Gurney said postgame. “He told me he was going to come inside with a pitch, and sure enough, first pitch, that’s what I was sitting on. And I got it.”
Head coach Gary Henderson, in his fifth season at Utah, said the homer was the kind of swing Gurney has been building toward.
“Gurney’s been with us for four years, and obviously has developed into a really good hitter,” Henderson said. “He is starting to hit the ball over the right fielder’s head on occasion, which we certainly enjoy. He’s done a nice job of giving us quality at-bats. He stays balanced in the box, does a good job of swinging at strikes, taking balls, and he’s proved to be better each year.”
The lead didn’t hold the first time around. Cole Lanclos answered Gurney’s homer with one of his own in the top of the second — a two-run shot to left, his first as a collegian, that tied the game 3-3. Then Baylor went back-to-back on Utah starter Colter McAnelly in the fourth: Pearson Riebock to right field, then Travis Sanders 440 feet to the same spot, and just like that Baylor led 5-3.
“We didn’t pitch very well the first four innings,” Henderson said. “Neither side did, for that matter. Both starting pitchers got touched up a little bit. And then both the bullpens came in and did a little bit better job.”
Utah’s bullpen did more than that.
Demitri Diamant came on in the sixth and threw 3.2 innings of two-hit, eight-strikeout relief. The Utes’ offense had already given him a lead by then — Jack Kleveno’s RBI single in the fourth, Jake Long’s sac fly to tie it 5-5, then a three-run fifth that put Utah up 8-5 on Matt Flaharty’s two-run double down the left-field line and Luke Jacobs’ RBI single to left.
Freshman Cal Miller has reached base safely in 25 straight games, the longest streak for a Utah freshman since at least 2002!
Way to go, @calmiller06 🙌#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/51z5mjR7i6
— Utah Baseball (@utahbaseball) May 15, 2026
Diamant had it locked down until Brady Janusek caught one to left-center in the top of the ninth — a 422-foot two-run shot, his 12th of the season — that brought Baylor within one. After Diamant walked Dylan Perez, Henderson went to Abercrombie with the tying run on base and Hunter Snow at the plate. Abercrombie got Snow to ground out softly back to the mound, threw to first, and that was the ballgame.
Henderson talked about the relief outing the way coaches talk about pitchers they trust.
“Demitri and Colter are two great kids, good families, and they did a nice job of getting the secondary stuff to work today,” he said. “They totaled up between them 15 punch-outs.”
He also wanted to talk about his catcher. Jack Kleveno is listed at five-foot-seven — not the typical build for a Power Four catcher — and Henderson treated that as part of the story, not in spite of it.
“He’s a special kid, obviously. He’s challenged in terms of height — you know, he’s about five-foot-seven. But he throws it extremely well. Great receiver, blocks well, good communicator. Jack’s a really unique player in Division I, Power Four baseball, in that he’s about five-foot-seven and he’s catching. Typically you think of those guys being 6-2, 220 or something like that. But Jack’s a special kid for us.”
For Gurney, the game was bigger than the home run. Utah moved out of Smith’s Ballpark in downtown Salt Lake — where the Utes had played since 1994, alongside the Salt Lake Bees, before the Bees themselves relocated to The Ballpark at America First Square — and onto a new on-campus ballpark this season. Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark, named for the Colorado Rockies co-founder and Utah alum who donated $10 million toward its construction.
“Being a Ute means everything to me,” Gurney said. “It’s my fourth year here, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This place means a lot to me. It’s my second home. The coaching staff — they’re great coaches, but they’re also great people.”
He kept going on the new ballpark.
“It’s been everything we could have ever asked for. There’s been countless people who have put into this place, and I wish I could thank them all individually. It’s truly a blessing, and we’re super grateful to have this place and call it our own.”
Henderson, asked what it meant to play in the new facility for the first time, did not hedge.
“It means everything,” Henderson said. “We’ve got everything we have right here. The kids come, and they go to the weight room, they go to the trainer’s room, they eat. We have study hall on Wednesdays. We’ve got a weight room, we’ve got an equipment room — we got the whole thing. We used to have a field here with a portable outhouse. It’s all been improved. It’s changed a tremendous amount. People look at the program, the kids look at the program differently. It’s been a wonderful thing for the program.”