May 19, 2006

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota - Utah Valley State took an eight-run lead and held off a late rally by the New York Institute of Technology to win 8-6 at the Division-I Independent Tournament on Friday. The win moves the Wolverines to 2-0 in the tournament and secures the #1 seed in their pool heading into Saturday's bracketed play.

Utah Valley will take on North Dakota State Saturday at 7:30pm CT with the winner moving on to Sunday's championship game against either Northern Colorado or the winner of Saturday's late game between New York and South Dakota State.

Kam Mickolio (6-6) earned the win in his final start as a Wolverines. He was one out away from a complete-game before being lifted for Brett Guerrero, who earned his first save after getting Bryan Pastor to fly out to left to end the ballgame.

"Well things got interesting in the end but we did what we had to do," said Utah Valley coach Steve Gardner. "Kam did a great job for the most part and I'm happy that he could get the win in his final start."

The Wolverines took an 8-0 lead thanks, in part to New York Tech starter Joe Esposito's inability to hit the strike zone.

After Utah Valley manufactured a run early to get on the board after and Eli Slesk RBI sac-fly, Esposito gifted the next three runs by walking three straight batters with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.

Dan Bulow, Adam Openshaw and Cory Newton all picked up runs batted in after drawing the bases loaded walks.

Following a pitching change, Reno Mendenhall delivered a two-run single to left-center to give UV a 6-0 lead.

The Wolverines tacked on single runs in both the sixth and seventh, the latter coming on an RBI single from Nick Connor for his sixth hit in 11 at-bats in the tournament.

New York Tech began its comeback in the seventh after a single to center by Mike LaLuna scored Pastor and ended the shutout hopes for Mickolio.

Then, with one out in the ninth, New York rattled off three consecutive singles before Kraig Binick reached on a fielder's choice and a throwing error allowed the third run for the Bears to come in.

Andrew Karkoulas then delivered a three-run blast, to bring NYIT within two runs and chase Mickolio from the game.

Guerrero then walked Mike MacMillan before getting Pastor to fly out.

Mendenhall had a two-run single for Utah Valley and has four runs batted in through two games.

The New York Tech pitching staff combined to walk 11 Wolverines while also hitting four batters. Esposito (5-4) suffered the loss after allowing six runs on four hits and eight walks in 4.2 innings of work.

In other action on Friday, North Dakota State beat IPFW 17-6 before Northern Colorado secured the #1 seed in its pool with a 14-11 win over IPFW.