April 19, 2008
GREELEY, Colorado Utah Valley held off a near-miraculous rally by Northern Colorado to win a 15-14 slugfest on Saturday afternoon. The Wolverines (9-25-1) had a 15-2 lead after in the eighth before the Bears (13-23) brought the winning run at the plate in the form of their top hitter in the bottom of the ninth.
Do-it-all sophomore Jace Brinkerhoff finished with three hits and three RBI and got the save on the mound for UV. Brinkerhoff got Kevin Sandberg, who leads UNC with seven home runs, to ground right back to the mound to end the game, but not before a 10-run eighth inning and a two-run home run in the ninth by Cory Morales made things more than very interesting.
Northern Colorado sent 13 batters to the plate and hit two bases loaded doubles and a two-run home run, by Erik Hegsted, in the eighth.
Utah Valley was able to survive though thanks to a quick start that gave the team an 11-0 lead in the top of the fifth. Tyler Garretson had three hits including his first home run to help UV get out to that big advantage. The win made it a perfect day for the Wolverines after defeating Air Force 17-6 earlier on Saturday.
After belting out a season-high 21 hits in the win over Air Force, UV surpassed that total with 22 hits in the afternoon while ending the Bears' five-game winning streak.
Garretson, Brinkerhoff, Scott Croshaw and Cole Anderson had three hits each with Brinkerhoff driving in three runs with the bat before picking up his first save on the mound.
After the Wolverines scored two in the top of the first, Garretson, who was playing in front of several friends and family in his hometown, drove in the third run of the game on a double that plated Josh Hinckley. With two out in the second, Brinkerhoff doubled to the wall in left to score both Garretson and Ryan Jones.
Garretson hit his home run to straightaway centerfield with one out in the fourth to put UV up 6-0. Brinkerhoff drove in his third run of the day with another two-out hit, a single up the middle to score Anderson.
An inning later, Croshaw doubled followed by back-to-back home runs from Kevin Arendse and Hinckley. Arendse's was a big shot to left and his second home run in two days. An out later, Garretson very nearly duplicated his earlier home run with a double off the wall in center. He then scored on an Anderson single, putting the Wolverines up 11-0.
Northern Colorado got on the board with two runs in the fifth before the Wolverines added four more in the eighth. Openshaw, Croshaw, Dick Bargewell and Jake Rickenbach all drove in single runs as part of the eighth.
Marcus Moore (5-5) pitched seven innings and gave up two runs on seven hits to earn the win while Joe Sawicki (1-2) took the loss after giving up seven runs on nine hits in three and 1/3 innings.
The Wolverines will go for their third straight win and a sweep of the short two-game series against UNC on Sunday at 10am MT.
