OREM, Utah—Despite some late-inning fireworks by the Seattle U Redhawks, the UVU baseball team held on for a 9-8 win over the WAC leaders at Brent Brown Ballpark Friday night. The Wolverines jumped out to an early 7-1 lead behind a six-run third inning where 11 Wolverines stepped up to the plate. Solo home runs by Spencer Gothberg and Zac Willis posed as late-inning insurance runs as the Redhawks cut the Wolverines’ lead to one in the eighth.
“I was really pleased with how our guys did a good job of finding a way to go out and compete early especially and get on a guy that’s a real talented pitcher,” said UVU coach Eric Madsen. “I felt like we did a good job of not allowing ourselves to strike out and, obviously early, that’s where the results came.”
After tying the game at one in the second inning, UVU took a 2-1 lead after Greyson Bogden was hit by a pitch and Jordan Schlehuber scored. Mark Krueger then extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a single through the right side of the infield to score Willis and Trevor Howell. Craig Brinkerhoff piled on with a single to left, which scored Bogden and Krueger to give the Wolverines a 6-1 lead. Brinkerhoff advanced to second when the ball was mishandled by the left fielder. Two batters later, Justin Erlandson sent a single to right and Brinkerhoff scored the sixth run of the inning.
The Redhawks got one run back in the fourth after Dalton Hurd singled to left to score Jack Reisinger from second. Brinkerhoff answered in the fifth with a lead-off solo home run to give the Wolverines an 8-2 lead. After SU cut into the lead again, Willis hit a towering home run to left to lead off the sixth to put UVU on top by a margin of 9-3.
SU chipped away at the UVU lead with two runs in the seventh inning, then cut the deficit to 9-8 in the eighth with a two-out, three-run homer by Sheldon Stober that snuck over the wall in right. Kyle Valgardson came in to face the next batter, Brock Carpenter, who struck out swinging to end the top of the inning.
After two batters popped out to the infield in the top of the ninth, Valgardson sent Max Modeste down swinging after three pitches to end the game.
UVU and SU are scheduled to face off for the second of a three-game set Saturday night at 6 p.m. MT at Brent Brown Ballpark.
