April 9, 2007
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This Week's Action
Utah Valley (11-20) will play six games in six days this week with a three-game series against both Southern Utah and South Dakota State. The Wolverines will host SUU in a doubleheader on Tuesday at 4pm and a single game Wednesday at 7pm. Thursday will be a travel day for UV with the SDSU series scheduled for Friday thru Sunday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. First pitch for the three games is scheduled for 2pm, Noon and 11am MT.
Gametracker will be available for all three games of the Southern Utah series while live audio for the South Dakota State series can be accessed at www.GoJacks.com.
The Wolverines are coming off of a 3-3 week that saw them sweep a doubleheader from Binghamton before dropping three out of four to Utah.
UV swept a Tuesday doubleheader from Binghamton, winning 12-6 and 13-4.
In the series against the Utes, both teams won on their respective home fields, with UV winning 18-1 on Friday night in Orem in front of a school record crowd of 2,013.
Derrick Thomas hit .600 last week with three home runs and 11 runs batted in while Jace Brinkerhoff (.474) and Austin Heaps (.417, two HR's) both had solid weeks at the plate.
Marcus Moore made his first career NCAA start in the win over Utah and went the distance, striking out seven and allowing just one run on three hits. Moore is currently sporting a 2-2 record and a 1.65 ERA.
Scouting the T-Birds
Southern Utah (4-28) is coming off of a series against Western Illinois where the T-Birds lost three out of four.
SUU leads the all-time series against Utah Valley 10-9, but the Wolverines have won three out of four so far this season, including twice in Cedar City. The teams also met in the Banana Belt Tournament in Lewiston, Idaho with UV winning 17-2.
The T-Birds are led at the plate by Cameron Nelson, who is batting .317 with four home runs and 16 runs batted in.
Scouting the Jacks
South Dakota State (14-12) has won five out of six including winning two of three two weeks ago against Utah Valley in Orem. SDSU won the opener 17-3 before holding a late rally to win 10-9 before UV won the finale 10-9. The Jacks lead the all-time series 5-4 over the Wolverines.
South Dakota State swept a two-game series against North Dakota State over the weekend, 6-3 and 10-3.
The Jacks will be back in Orem in May for the Division I Independent Tournament, but the two teams will not play one another. They will face New York Tech, Chicago State, NJIT and Northern Colorado at the tournament.
The SDSU pitching staff has a solid 3.99 ERA and is holding opponents to a .260 batting average.
South Dakota State is its final season as an independent as they will compete in the Mid-Continent Conference beginning on July 1, 2007.
On Deck
Utah Valley hosts Utah next Tuesday, April 17th at 7pm before renewing a rivalry with former SWAC JC foe Dixie State in a three-game series the following Thursday thru Saturday. The games on Thursday and Friday will begin at 7pm with the Saturday game slated for 1pm.
