BATON ROUGE, La.—Spencer Gothberg homered in the bottom of the fourth inning, but it was not enough and the UVU baseball team’s historic postseason run came to an end Sunday afternoon in a loss to the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in the Baton Rouge Regional by a final of 3-2. Despite the loss, starter Jackson Cofer pitched a spectacular game for the Wolverines with 7.1 innings of work with three runs allowed, two earned runs, four hits, two walks and five strikeouts.
SLU scored three runs in the first inning as Brennan Breaud sparked a rally with a one-out single through the right side of the infield. After the nation’s batting leader Jameson Fisher drew a walk, both runners advanced on a wild pitch, but SLU took a 1-0 lead on the play when Breaud came all the way around from second to score as Jake Atkinson slid into the dugout in an attempt to prevent the ball from rolling out of play. Cofer got Carson Crites to strike out swinging, but Drew Avans drove a two-out single to left, which plated Fisher for a 2-0 lead. Avans advanced to second on Craig Brinkerhoff’s throw to the infield.
Avans stole third then scored on a throw to first by Jordan Schlehuber that Gothberg was unable to dig out of the dirt. Schlehuber was assessed an error on the play. The run capped the Lions’ three-run inning, then Cofer settled in and threw 6.1 innings of shutout baseball.
UVU cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the third after Trevor Howell drew a one-out walk then put himself in scoring position by swiping second base. After Zac Willis struck out swinging, Greyson Bogden reached on a throwing error, which allowed Howell to come around to score and cut the UVU deficit to 3-1.
Spencer Gothberg put the Wolverines within 3-2 in the fourth inning with a line drive, solo home run to left center on a 1-0 count with one out. But it was as close as UVU could get as the Wolverines tallied just one hit over the final 5.2 innings.
After Bogden and Brinkerhoff flied out in the bottom of the ninth, Mark Krueger grounded out to second base on a 0-2 count to end the game and the Wolverines’ season.
UVU went 0-2 in their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, including a 7-1 loss to the LSU Tigers Friday night. The Wolverines completed their season with a 37-23 record and won their first-ever WAC title.
