OREM, Utah— Craig Brinkerhoff’s towering, solo home run to left field in the eighth inning came too little too late as the UVU baseball team failed to sweep the UTRGV Vaqueros with a 4-2 loss at Brent Brown Ballpark Sunday afternoon. Despite the loss, the Wolverines remain tied for third in the WAC standings because of a 4-3 loss by Sacramento State to Grand Canyon.
“I just felt like we kind of got out-willed today,” said UVU coach Eric Madsen. “It’s always tough to sweep somebody … We just didn’t have the right mindset at the beginning of it to do what we needed to do to sweep that thing.”
Stone Ramsey got the Wolverines’ offense going in the bottom of the third inning with a one-out double to right field. Ramsey then advanced to third on a single to right by Jordan Schlehuber. With runners on the corners and two outs, Zac Willis drew a walk on a wild pitch and Ramsey came in to score and UVU took an early 1-0 lead.
The Vaqueros threatened in the top of the fourth with runners on second and third with nobody out after Scott Mercer doubled down the left field line. Manny Loredo then knocked a slow roller out in front of the plate and Willis made the play at first to keep the runners from advancing. Jake Mayer got out of the inning as Correy Davis popped up a bunt on a squeeze play to Schlehuber at third. Schlehuber tagged his base to complete an unassisted double play.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Justin Erlandson kept his hitting streak alive with a single through the left side of the infield. The streak has reached 16 games.
UTRGV broke through the UVU pitching in the top of the sixth when Loredo singled down the right field line with runners on second and third. Both runners scored to give the Vaqueros a 2-1 lead after six innings.
The Vaqueros notched a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning when Joseph Collazo singled through the left side with runners on the corners to score pinch runner Caden Rosholt. Loredo, again, singled to center and Loncar came around to score from second to take the score to 4-2. Matt Davidson then came on in relief for Greg McCuch and retired the next two batters, which stranded a pair of Vaqueros on base.
UVU got one run back in the bottom half of the eighth inning as Craig Brinkerhoff hit a moon shot of a solo home run to left field with two outs. But it was as close as the Wolverines could get. With two runners on base and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Trevor Howell flied out to right field to end the game.
UVU will play their final series of the regular season against the Chicago State Cougars starting Thursday a 5 p.m. MT in Chicago.
