May 9, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Eli Slesk had four runs batted in and
Kalen Parsons got out of trouble in the final four innings as Utah Valley State (17-34) held off Utah Tuesday afternoon at Ute Field.
Parsons escaped from bases loaded jams in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and with the bases loaded and the tying run on second in the ninth, got Josh Bell to ground into a 6-4-3 game ending double play. Parsons (3-8) earned the win after throwing the final 3.1 innings and allowing one run on six hits.
"Parsons stepped up today and made the pitches when he had to," said Utah Valley coach Steve Gardner. "This is a good Utah team and they hit the ball hard. But Parsons got the ground balls when he needed them and that's what we needed to do to win."
"We had swung the bat well all weekend (at Washington State) so we were confident," said Slesk. "Utah's a great club and it feels good to get a win over them. Our pitching is coming along and they made the pitches today when we needed it."
After falling behind 2-1 in the third on Utah shortstop Ryan Khoury's 12th home run of the year, the Wolverines plated seven runs in the fourth to take an 8-2 lead.
Dan Bulow had an RBI double and
Derrick Thomas an RBI single before Slesk delivered a bases loaded single to score Thomas and
Adam Openshaw.
Chris Benson followed that up with a two-run triple to left before
Canyon Vance capped the inning with an infield RBI single.
Utah would not go away quietly though, as the Utes pushed across five runs in the fourth to cut the lead to 8-7. Joe Mozeleski delivered the big blast, a two-run shot to left center for Utah.
Erich Kemp tied it up at 8-8 in the sixth when his two-out single scored Jay Brossman.
Parsons then came in and after walking Mozeleski to load the bases, struck out Adam Frank to end the inning.
Utah Valley then manufactured runs the rest of the way, scoring single runs in the final three innings on a groundout RBI by Openshaw and sac-fly RBI's by Slesk in the eighth and Thomas in the ninth.
As a team, Utah stranded 17 runners including 11 in the last four innings.
The Wolverines will have the next week off before playing at BYU next Tuesday night at 7 p.m. They will then close out the year at the Independent Tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota May 17-21.
