March 9, 2007

Las Cruces, New Mexico - Utah Valley jumped out to an early lead but New Mexico State came from behind twice to take the series opener 10-8 on Friday night.

The Wolverines scored twice in the top of the first on two-out RBI singles from Jace Brinkerhoff and Eli Slesk but the Aggies answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

Tyler Hardt's bases loaded single drove in two runs with another run crossing the plate following an error. Adam Harvey followed that with a double to score Hardt before Ari Loiben drove home the fifth run of the first on a groundout.

Utah Valley's bats came right back though, sending 10 batters to the plate and erupting for six runs in the second inning.

Dan Bulow had a two-run single before Slesk and Austin Heaps had back-to-back two-run doubles, giving UV an 8-5 lead after an inning and a half.

New Mexico State pushed across three runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game before both pitching staffs settled down for the next three innings.

The Aggies took the lead for good in the seventh inning when Hardt was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and two batters later added their 10th run when Marcos Rosales drew another free base and RBI when he too was hit by a pitch.

Slesk finished with three hits and three runs batted in for the Wolverines while Tyler Garretson, Bulow and Brinkerhoff each had two hits.

Both teams finished with 13 hits on the night.

Brian Gausman threw the final three innings and allowed no runs on two hits to move to 3-1 on the season.

Freshman Ryan Chadwick (0-1) took the loss for Utah Valley after throwing the seventh.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 1pm MT with Kyle Kasper the scheduled starter for the Wolverines.