OREM, Utah—The UVU baseball team won in walk-off fashion Saturday night by a final of 11-8 when Craig Brinkerhoff hit a three-run home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Wolverines fought through rough weather conditions the entire night and clinched the series win against the Northern Colorado Bears. The Wolverines improved to 18-14 on the season and 5-3 in WAC play.
The Wolverines jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first when Stone Ramsey hit an RBI triple in the right center gap that scored lead off hitter Trevor Howell. Ramsey scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Mark Krueger. Over the next two innings the Wolverines scored three and two runs for a 7-2 lead after three.
The Bears were brought back to life in the fourth on a two-run home run by lead off hitter Nick Tanner. Cole Maltese tied the game in the sixth with another three-run home run. The Bears then took a one-run lead in the seventh on a single up the middle from Jake Garcia. The Wolverines tied the game in the bottom half of the seventh as Mark Krueger earned an obstruction call while caught in a rundown between third and home. The game stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth.
The bottom of the order had a huge game for UVU as batters six through nine went 9-for-15 with six RBIs, scored six runs and drew three walks. Starting pitcher Danny Beddes went five innings, gave up four earned runs, seven hits, walked five, while striking out only three and drew a no-decision.
“The hard thing is Danny’s a real talented kid and I give him a lot of credit for battling through,” said UVU head coach Eric Madsen. “He got us five innings and it wasn’t real clean. He was out there just kind of going at it, and you’ve got to give a guy credit that will compete and do those things.”
Kyle Valgardson earned the win and improved to 3-1 on the season. But the hero of the night was Craig Brinkerhoff who hit the game-winning, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
“He just gave me a good pitch to hit and just put contact on it,” said Brinkerhoff.
The Wolverines will be back in action tomorrow as they hope to sweep the Bears as Jackson Cofer will be taking the mound in the finale at noon MT at Brent Brown Ball Park.
