April 3, 2009
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley pounded out a doubleheader sweep of Air Force, 13-7 and 12-10, on a cold and windy Friday night at Brent Brown Ballpark. The Wolverines (9-19) combined to rack up 35 hits on the day, including a 20-hit second game in which four different players each had three hits.
Ryan Jones had three hits in the opener, a seven inning game, while five others including Billy Burgess had two hits each. Burgess' sixth inning grand slam broke open an 9-7 game and was the freshman's first home run of the year. Kevin Arendse was 2-for-2 with a double and a home run and drove in three.
In the second game, Kirk Doxey had a three-run home run and finished a single shy of the cycle, drawing a walk in the eighth inning. The top three hitters in the batting order; Jake Rickenbach, Jones and Jace Brinkerhoff were the other three with three-hit games.
Rickenbach and Doxey drove in three, Jones had two RBI and Arendse had two more hits and two batted in as each Wolverine starter had at least one hit. Brandon Hill, making his first start of the year, was 2-for-3 and scored twice as the DH.
The teams will meet again on Saturday beginning at noon in another doubleheader.
In the first game, Utah Valley had a trio of four run innings to aid in the win. The Wolverines scored four in the second with two coming on a bases-loaded double from Arendse that scored Sage Thorpe and Josh Hinckley.
Air Force came back with a pair of runs in the third and one more in the fourth to trim the lead to one, 4-3.
In the bottom of the inning, two Falcon errors and some timely two out hitting gave UVU an 8-3 advantage with all four runs in the inning unearned. Burgess, who reached on an error, scored the first run of the inning on a sac-fly by Cole Anderson. With two outs, Jones drove in Arendse on a bunt single to third and Thorpe singled up the middle, scoring Jones and Brinkerhoff.
The Falcons came back with two more in the top of the fifth on a two-run single by Jon McMahon. Following Arendse's home run in the bottom of the inning, Air Force scored two more including one on Ben Ausbun's pinch-hit home run to trim the lead to 9-7 and keep the Falcons within striking distance.
In the sixth though, Burgess gave UVU some insurance with his two-out slam to left.
Justin Smith went the entire way to move to 3-3 on the year. Smith struck out six and allowed six earned runs in the complete game win.
In the nightcap, Utah Valley answered a three-run Air Force fourth with five in the bottom of the inning. Burgess singled home Thorpe for the first run before Doxey's blast came with two aboard and left the yard just right of centerfield. A batter later, Rickenbach tripled and then scored on a single to center by Brinkerhoff.
Matt Alexander tied it in the fifth with a big two-run home run to right, part of a five RBI night for the Air Force DH. The Wolverines came right back with three in the bottom of the inning though, taking the lead for good.
UVU scored all three runs with two outs. Rickenbach gave UVU the lead on an infield single that plated Anderson and Jones came through with a single up the middle that scored Arendse and Rickenbach.
Both teams scored a single run in the seventh before three runs in the eighth turned to be what Utah Valley needed. Thorpe and Hill led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Anderson reached on a fielder's choice. Arendse then came through with a triple into the gap in right-center and then came home on yet another two-out single by Rickenbach.
Air Force made it interesting in the ninth when Alexander tripled home two runs and scored on a balk before Blair Kessler homered to right. McMahon then singled to bring the tying run to the plate but Vai Schierholtz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
Kole Mickolio earned his first win of the year after throwing 6.1 innings and giving up six runs on eight hits while striking out two.
