March 30, 2007

Orem, UT - The Utah Valley State baseball team dropped its home opener to South Dakota State on Friday, 17-3. The loss drops the Wolverines to 7-16 while South Dakota State improved to 11-11.

Utah Valley State freshman pitcher Jace Brinkerhoff (2-5) took the loss, pitching six innings, allowing nine hits, seven runs while striking out six. Brinkerhoff wasn't the only pitcher that struggled as the entire staff allowed 19 hits.

Derrick Thomas led the Wolverine offense with two hits, one being a homerun. As a team UV totaled seven hits.

Utah Valley fell behind 5-0 in top of the first inning after the Jacks scored their runs on four hits, including a three-run homerun by Tony Martin over the left-centerfield fence. South Dakota State added another run in third to extend its lead to 6-0.

The Wolverines scored their first run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Thomas started the inning with a one-out double to left-center. After a single by Austin Heaps, Josh Hinckley platted Thomas on a sacrifice fly to left field.

Utah Valley got no closer as the Jacks Tim Hanigan smacked a solo homerun in the sixth to up the lead to 7-1. South Dakota State added two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to build a 10-1 lead.

Thomas did help Utah Valley cut into the SDSU lead when he hit a two-run bomb down the right field line in the eighth inning to make the score 10-3. Adam Openshaw scored on the play after leading off the inning with a walk.

South Dakota State pitcher Matt Bowman improved to 2-2 after pitching a complete game.

The series concludes with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game can be heard live by logging onto www.wolverinegreen.com.