March 18, 2006
SACRAMENTO, California - Kyle Tash struck out a career high 10 batters as Utah Valley State (6-12) held off Sacramento State 6-5 to win the second game of a doubleheader Saturday. Sac State (10-15) won the first game of the twinbill behind a four-hitter from south paw Mick Joyce, 7-1.
Tash (4-1, 4.95) was one out away from a complete game when he was lifted for freshman
Kyle Beecher, who retired Pat Keiper on one pitch with the tying run at second base in the bottom of the 9th.
Tash entered the eighth inning with just three hits allowed, one unearned run and a 6-1 lead, but the Hornets came up with three singles in the inning scoring a run and cutting the lead to 6-2.
In the ninth, Tash retired pinch hitter Ronnie Machado, Jr before another pinch hitter, Jim Strombach doubled to left center. Following a walk and a groundout, the Hornets got back-to-back doubles from Patrick Cummins and Buddy Morales to bring the winning run to the plate in Keiper.
Keiper grounded out to
Brad Hales, who made a nice backhanded play, on the first pitch he saw from Beecher, who picked up the first save of his college career.
The Wolverines got three hits each from
Adam Openshaw and
Canyon Vance.
Jason Zundel started in centerfield and was 2-for-3 with two RBI on the day.
Openshaw is 8-for-14 so far in the series while freshman
Chris Benson had two hits in the Wolverine win to improve to 7-for-11 against Sac State as UV has won two out of the first three games in the series.
In the first game of the day, Joyce improved to 5-0 and was a strike away from his second consecutive shutout before
Dan Bulow homered to right to get the Wolverines on the board.
The big blow for Sac State came in the sixth when Brian Conradi delivered a three-run double to give the Hornets a 4-0 cushion.
Nick Connor had two of the four hits in the game Utah Valley State and is now hitting .515 on the year.
The series finale will take place Sunday at 1:00pm PST.
Dan Christensen (0-0, 4.50) is scheduled to get his first start of the season for the Wolverines while Travis Kane (1-3, 4.88) will start for the Hornets.
