April 8, 2008
OREM, Utah - Marcus Moore tied his own school record by striking out 14 batters as Utah Valley edged Southern Utah 3-1 in the second game of a doubleheader on Tuesday at Brent Brown Ballpark. The T-Birds (14-14) earned a come-from-behind 8-7 win over the Wolverines (7-20-1) in the first game earlier in the afternoon.
Moore, who previously struck out 14 against SUU on April 11, 2007, allowed just one run on five scattered hits. The run came in the second when Colby Ford singled home Tyler Hogge with two outs.
The Wolverines got that run back in the bottom of the second when Scott Croshaw, who went 6-for-8 during the doubleheader, singled home Kai Hatch. Croshaw was 2-for-3 with two runs batted in in the win.
Utah Valley scored the final two runs of the game in the fourth when Adam Openshaw singled and then scored on a triple by Croshaw. Josh Hinckley then grounded out to short, allowign Croshaw to score the third and final run of the game.
Moore ran into a little trouble in the seventh after the first two hitter reached via a walk and a single. After Ford sacrficed the runners over, Moore got Matt Sanford to fly out to shallow right before a two-out walk to Nick Freitas. He then got Keli'i Zablan to foul out to Cole Anderson in right to end the inning.
Moore then struck out the side in the eighth and retired the T-Birds in order in the ninth, ending the game on a strikeout of Sanford.
The Wolverines had eight hits with Openshaw equaling Croshaw's two hits.
It's the third complete game win that Moore has thrown in his last four starts and the sixth complete game of his career. Moore also defeated SUU earlier in the year in Cedar City after striking out 10 in eight innings.
In the first game, Utah Valley jumped out to a 5-1 lead with a two in the first and three in the second. Croshaw hit his first home run of the year to cap the three-run second inning.
Southern Utah tied it with four runs in the third, picking up five singles in the inning.
The Wolverines regained the lead when Jace Brinkerhoff singled home Croshaw in the fifth, putting UV up 6-5.
In the sixth, Jacob Romney and Matthew Bezzant hit back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches to push SUU in front, 7-6.
Hatch tripled and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Openshaw in the seventh to tie it at seven before Mac Nelson drove in the game winning run in the top of the eighth.
Kyle Hamman pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to earn the save for Southern Utah.
Croshaw was 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored in the game while Brinkerhoff and Hatch both had two hits.
Up next for UV is a four-game series at Nevada beginning Friday night. The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday before the finale on Sunday.
