March 28, 2009
RENO, Nevada - Justin Smith struck out a career-high 11 batters in 7.0 innings and Jace Brinkerhoff went 4-for-4 with a home run as Utah Valley survived, 5-4, to earn a split of a Saturday doubleheader at Nevada on Saturday.
Smith allowed two runs on five hits on 124 pitches to move to 2-3 on the year while Brinkerhoff survived the ninth to earn his second save. The Wolverines (7-17) dropped the first game, 14-4, in eight innings.
"That's the most dominating Justin has been this year," said head coach Eric Madsen. "He got some big strikeouts in key situations. That's the type of outing we needed. And for Jace to struggle in the first game and then come back and get after it the way he did was awesome. That just shows the type of player he is."
Leading 5-2 heading into the ninth, the first two Wolf Pack (10-14) runners reached before Brinkerhoff struck out Kevin Rodland. Shaun Kort then delivered a double to left that scored Matt Bowman and moved Westley Moss to third. Bowman's run made it 5-3.
Brock Stassi grounded out to short, scoring Moss from third and moving Kort to third as the tying run. Brinkerhoff then hit Nick Melino to put the winning run at first to bringing up Tyson Jaquez. Jaquez, who homered in Friday's series opener, fouled out to catcher Kevin Arendse to end the game.
The Wolverines had 14 hits in the win compared to seven from Nevada. 13 of the 14 hits were singles with Brinkerhoff's home run the only extra base hit. Chris Benson finished 3-for-5 while Sage Thorpe and Arendse each had two hits.
The win ends an 11-game losing streak to the Wolf Pack after UVU won the first ever meeting between the teams in 2006.
The Wolverines were able to break through in the top of the first with a single run. Jake Rickenbach singled and moved to second on A.J. Palmer's sac-bunt. Brinkerhoff then singled to left to score Rickenbach.
In the third, UVU mounted a two-out rally with three consecutive singles with Thorpe driving in Brinkerhoff to make it 2-0.
Brinkerhoff's home run, his second of the season, came with one out in the fifth and put UVU up 3-0. Benson followed with his third single of the day and then scored on Arendse's two-out, RBI single that made it 4-0 and chased Wolf Pack starter Derek Achelpohl from the game.
Meanwhile, Smith struck out eight on just two hits through five innings before Nevada was able to break through with a run in the sixth. Jaquez singled up the middle to score Shaun Kort for UNR's first run of the game.
The Wolverines got that run back in the seventh with another two-out rally. Thorpe was hit by a pitch and moved to second with an infield single by Arendse. Billy Burgess brought Thorpe home to make it 5-1 with a liner into left.
Smith struck out two more batters in the sixth and then Travis Simas in the seventh, the fourth Nevada starter that he struck out at least twice.
In the first game, Nevada used a six-run first inning to jump out to a big lead and cruise to the 14-4 win that ended in eight innings via the 10-run rule.
The Wolf Pack had seven extra-base hits in the game, four doubles and three triples, with five of their first six hits going for extra bases.
Trailing 10-1, Utah Valley threatened to at least make a game of it in the seventh when they scored three runs and had the bases loaded with two outs. Reliever Stephen Bautista got Goose Kallunki to ground into a fielder's choice though to end the inning.
Nevada won it in the eighth with two runs, the second coming on a hit by Aaron Henry that scored Rodland for the walk-of win.
The Wolverines had just three hits in the game, two off the bat of Burgess. Burgess had an RBI single and scored a run.
Rodland was 3-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored and Michael Turay also had three hits for Nevada.
The series will conclude on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT. Brock Sargent is the scheduled starter for Wolverines while Nevada will counter with Jayson McClaren.
