Warren McDade @warrenmcdade17
Photo credit: Gabi Campbell
Utah Valley University baseball stayed hot and got its sixth straight win over the weekend with a three-game road sweep of Western Athletic Conference foe Chicago State University.
The series started off wet as Friday’s game was postponed due to rain, which made for a Saturday doubleheader. And that didn’t seem to bother the Wolverines (13-18, 6-3). They were led by stellar pitching from starters Andrew Freter and Ryan Evans.
“Those two really did a great job today,” head coach Eric Madsen said. “Andrew was excellent for seven innings and Ryan, with the way he pitched through our defensive miscues, was huge for us. It’s also nice to see us get those timely two-out hits in big situations.”
In the first game, Utah Valley gained a 5-0 lead and held off the Cougars (9-17, 0-6) 5-4. Freter (2-4) went 7.1 innings, giving up only three runs on five hits, while striking out seven.
Sean Moysh was strong on offense with three hits, as he hit a home run to right-center, his third this year, and drove in a run with a single in the fifth. In the sixth, Colby Croft singled and then scored after Kade Andrus tripled in the gap in right center. Andrus then scored on a sacrifice fly from Cam Zollinger.
Chicago State would put one on the board in its half of the sixth, and then scored three times in the eighth to close the gap to one run. Chad Michaud closed the door in the ninth for his third save of the season.
The second game saw CSU lead 2-0 in the third after a couple of errors, but Craig Brinkerhoff led off the fifth with a double and then scored on a base hit by Andrus. Andrus would score to tie the game at 2-2 on a two-out double from Greyson Bogden.
Bogden gave the Wolverines another two-out hit in the seventh to put them ahead 3-2. Seth Rhineer singled home two more runs, and Mark Krueger capped a string of six straight hits with a single that brought Rhineer home to make it 6-2.
Beau Kallas would triple the next inning and was brought home by White to put UVU up 7-2.
UVU won the finale 7-3 behind four scoreless innings from Devin Nelson, who picked up his second win of the week after beating BYU on April 1.
Bogden broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth with a solo home run, his second on the year, and also his second straight go-ahead RBI for the Wolverines.
UVU scored two more in the sixth, taking advantage of three walks and an error in the inning. Cam Zollinger had a two-out RBI single in the eighth and Krueger drove home his second run of the day with a sac-fly to cap the scoring for Utah Valley.
Moysh and Brinkerhoff led UVU with two hits apiece. Chicago State struggled with runners in scoring position as they stranded 14 runners on base during the game.
Utah Valley followed its third consecutive series win to return home for a three-game homestand. The Wolverines hosted Texas-Pan American, which was coming off a mid-week game. UTPA (13-21) took two of three from Grand Canyon and was looking to end the Wolverines’ win streak.
The series began Friday, April 11 at 6 p.m. MDT at Brent Brown Ballpark.
