Photo by Sarah Sanchez
OREM — The University of Utah’s offense tattooed the UVU pitching staff and helped the Utes beat the Wolverines 23-5 Tuesday night at Brent Brown Ballpark to snap a four-game winning streak over the PAC-12 club.
The Utes’ DaShawn Keirsey Jr. had two hits in the first inning alone, part of five on the night, helping Utah (18-17) force the Wolverines’ starter Logan Hold out of a game that they will want to forget. Third baseman Dallas Carroll and first baseman Hunter Simmons each homered in the 4:13-minute game and knocked in five runs apiece.
UVU (13-25), down seven runs after the top of the first inning, fired back with a two-run home run from left fielder Jake Berry. The score was 8-5 after second inning but the answer fell short of the deficit and the Utes didn’t leave any glimmer of hope.
“Well it’s just disappointing,” head coach Eric Madsen said. “Our guys have to take a little more pride in what they’re doing. We had some key opportunities in the middle of the order with a chance [in an 8-5 game] and then we didn’t do anything.”
Utah scored four more runs in the fourth inning, was held scoreless in the fifth, but tacked on seven in the sixth and seventh. Carroll hammered a three-run homer to the deep part of the yard in left-center field and Madsen had to work through nine pitchers to retire the 63 Ute batters faced. It took the Wolverines 254 pitches to get through the nine innings of baseball. The 23 runs scored by Utah tied a record for the number of runs scored by an opponent in Brent Brown Ballpark history.
“It just got out of hand early on and then we just couldn’t get it stopped,” Madsen said. “You’re not going to win many games when you give up 18 runs in four innings, I’m quite certain of that. It is what it is and we have to figure out how to do something different to be better.”
Jake Atkinson, the UVU catcher who has struggled at the plate this season, crushed a two-run home run that bounced off the promenade above the grass berm in left field. It was one of few bright spots in the game for the team in green.
Both teams will return to conference play where Utah will open a three-game series with Washington State University Thursday in Salt Lake City and UVU will head on the road to face Northern Colorado University in Greeley. Friday’s first pitch for UVU will be 3 p.m. MDT.
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