OREM, Utah—The UVU baseball team fell to the Seattle U Redhawks by a final of 5-3 at Brent Brown Ballpark Saturday night to even the weekend series at one game apiece. The Redhawks jumped on Wolverine starter Danny Beddes early and took a 4-0 lead in the first inning. UVU battled back but was doomed by 12 strikeouts. Mark Krueger went 0-for-4 to snap his 21-game hitting streak.
“Coming out they got on the board early and I felt like we didn’t really play very well the rest of the way at the plate as far as tough outs,” said UVU coach Eric Madsen. “We struck out way too many times after doing a very good job yesterday.”
Momentum got going early for SU when Michael McCann drew a one-out walk. The Redhawks got on the board with a 2-0 lead after back-to-back doubles to right center by Sheldon Stober and Sean Sutton. Lucas Denney put the cap on the inning for SU with a two-run homer to left for a 4-0 lead. Beddes got out of the inning with a chopper back to the mound, then the game went into a rain delay that lasted nearly an hour.
Beddes came out of the break strong and pitched 5.2 innings with four runs allowed, nine strikeouts and six walks. Beddes and the Wolverines got into a jam in the fifth inning after he walked the bases loaded with two outs, but Beddes sent Jeffrey Morgan down looking on strikes to escape unscathed.
The UVU bats showed some life in the bottom half of the fifth inning as Spencer Gothberg reached on a throwing error by Griffin Andreychuk. Paul Estrada and Trevor Howell drew a pair of walks to load the bases and set up Zac Willis with two outs. Willis drove a ground ball through the left side of the infield to cut the SU lead to 4-2. Bogden grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
After the Redhawks tacked on one more run in the seventh for a three-run lead, the Wolverines posted one of their own in the eighth inning as Gothberg lifted a sacrifice fly to to center field and Willis scored from third to put UVU within 5-3.
Howell attempted to get a two-out rally going for the Wolverines with a single to left, but it was quickly squashed as Willis was robbed of what may have been a double to left as Brock Carpenter went air born at third and snagged the line drive to end the game.
UVU looks to bounce back and take the series Sunday at 11 a.m. MT at Brent Brown Ballpark.
