March 20, 2009
CORVALLIS, Oregon -  Utah Valley dropped two games on Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon, falling 10-7 to Saint Mary's in a neutral site game and 17-2 at Oregon State.
In the first game the Wolverines (5-14) fell behind 10-0 before making things interesting in the ninth. UVU entered the ninth with 17 consecutive scoreless innings and just seven base hits during the stretch before putting together seven runs on five hits.
Josh Hinckley drove in two of the runs on a bases loaded double. Jace Brinkerhoff and Cole Anderson had two hits each in the loss.
Saint Mary's freshman Troy Channing homered twice and drove in five. He put the Gaels (13-7) up 3-0 just three batters into the bottom of the first with his eighth home run of the year to left center.
Channing drove in another run on a groundout in the second before his second home run of the game, and ninth of the year, a solo shot in the sixth to almost the identical spot he hit the first.
Brian Justice (3-1) threw 7.0 innings and struck out five while allowing just three hits and a walk. Kole Mickolio (0-1) took the loss for the Wolverines.
Against Oregon State, free passes hurt Utah Valley as the Beavers (10-5) as the Wolverine pitchers combined to walk 11 batters while hitting five.
Eight of Oregon State's runs that scored reached base either by walk or were hit by a pitch and two of the runs that scored reached on errors. After six innings, the Beavers' line read 14 runs on seven hits.
Utah Valley didn't score against the Beavers in the series until the top of the eighth inning on a wild pitch allowing Ryan Jones to come home.
In the ninth, Benson doubled and then later scored from third on Sage Thorpe's RBI single up the middle.
Justin Smith (1-3) took the loss for the Wolverines while Ryan Gorton got the win in his first start after throwing five shutout innings and allowing four hits.
Utah Valley has now lost nine straight, tying a school record for consecutive losses.
The Wolverines will wrap up the weekend with a game against Saint Mary's at 2 p.m. MT.