April 21, 2007
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley was nine outs away from recording its first series sweep of the season, but Dixie State scored seven runs over the final three innings to win 13-12 on Saturday.
The Wolverines led 12-6 after six innings and looked to be well on their way to a fifth consecutive win, but the Rebels scored four times in the seventh before tying it in the eighth on a bases-loaded double by Abe Canderleria.
In the ninth, Kyle Pratt hit what would have been a two-run home run but he passed pinch runner Keoni Viernes on the base paths and was awarded just a single and was out on the play.
The play didn't come back to haunt the Rebels though as Viernes, who was awarded home on the play, ended up as the winning run.
The Wolverines had the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth with Derrick Thomas at the plate, but he popped out to shallow left center field and Austin Heaps grounded out to short to end the game.
Jace Brinkerhoff finished the game 4-for-5 with two doubles, a triple and a single; just a home run short of the cycle.
Thomas was 3-for-4 with his ninth home run while Heaps was 2-for-5 with his fifth round-tripper and four runs batted in.
Mark Rose had three hits, including two home runs for the Rebels while Klint Anderson and Canderleria both had three hits each.
Marcus Moore (4-3) suffered the loss on the mound after giving up three runs in 1 1/3 innings while Robert Fielding (1-0) earned his first win in throwing three shutout innings for Dixie.
Early on, the Rebels had a 5-4 lead when UV broke through with a four-run fourth inning. Scott Croshaw led off the inning with his third home run of the year before Heaps, Brinkerhoff and Josh Hinckley all drove in runs.
Dixie State got a run back in the fifth on the second Rose homer of the day.
But the Wolverines plated four more runs in the sixth with the big blow in that inning coming on Heaps' big two-run blast to left center. Hinckley capped the inning with his second sac-fly RBI to give UV that 12-6 advantage.
Utah Valley will host Pac-10 Washington for a three game series next Thursday thru Saturday with 7pm starts scheduled for Thursday and Friday and a 1pm start slated on Saturday.
