May 26, 2007
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley had to rely on its seniors to come through on Saturday and they did in a big way in the final game of the Division-I Independent Championship. Eli Slesk and Derrick Thomas drove in all four Wolverine runs and Turreal Moore pitched four shutout innings to earn a 4-2 win over Chicago State in the season finale.
Utah Valley finished 25-30 on the year, its best record in four seasons at the Division-I level.
Slesk broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth with a bases-loaded single with two outs as part of a three-RBI day and Thomas doubled in the third to drive in his school-record 66th run of the season.
After the Wolverines took a 2-0 lead capped by Thomas' 19th double of the year, Chicago State tied it up in the fifth when Alex Goya drove in a run on a groundout and Utah native Alex Hall doubled home the tying run.
From there both teams struggled to swing the bats. The Wolverines mounted a threat in the sixth with the bases loaded and just one out but a strikeout and groundout left the game knotted at two.
The score stayed that way until the eighth when UV mounted a two-out rally. Keiki Albino singled to center and moved to second when Scott Croshaw was hit by a pitch. Tyler Garretson then walked to load the bases before Slesk singled to left to drive home the winning runs.
In addition to finishing with a school-record with 66 runs batted in, Thomas also tied a single season school record with 15 home runs and was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Keiki Albino.
Utah Valley and South Dakota State both finished with 3-1 records but SDSU won the tournament championship by virtue of a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker ended up as run differential against common opponents with the Jacks finishing +30 against UV's common opponents and the Wolverines finishing +16.
SDSU's Craig Parry and North Dakota State's Ryan Langlais were named tournament co-MVP's. Parry .538 with three home runs and five batted in and slugged 1.385 while Langlais hit an incredible .722 with four homers and 14 RBI and hit for the cycle in a win over NJIT.
Final Standings
South Dakota State 3-1
Utah Valley 3-1
NJIT 2-2
NYIT 2-2
North Dakota State 2-2
Northern Colorado 2-2
Chicago State 0-4
All-Tournament Team
Co-MVP's
Ryan Langlais - NDSU
Craig Parry - SDSU
Position Players
Keiki Albino - Utah Valley
Austin DeRogatis - NJIT
Grady Gorman - Northern Colorado
Alex Hall - Chicago State
Mike LaLuna - NYIT
Cal Lewis - South Dakota State
Kwesi Mitchell - NJIT
John Ray - Northern Colorado
Jake Rogers - South Dakota State
Kevin Sandberg - Northern Colorado
Derrick Thomas - Utah Valley
Pitchers
Matt Bowman - South Dakota State
Jon Burke - NYIT
Joe Esposito - NYIT
Eric Maydew - Northern Colorado
