April 7, 2009
Box Score
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley fought hard but in the long run BYU was too much for the Wolverines (14-19) as the Cougars (27-14) came into MSTAR Field and downed UVU by score of 9-2.
"BYU is a solid team in every aspect of the game," UVU head coach Todd Fairbourne said. "Overall I felt like we played pretty solid but they are a top team. We made a few too many mistakes and errors but more the most part played tough. To be a higher team, you have to take advantage of extra outs and runners on base. BYU did that today and we did not."
Both starting pitchers started out strong putting up zeros on the board for the first two innings. BYU got on the scoreboard first as the Cougars' clean-up hitter Jessica Purcell came through with a two-run single up the middle in the top of the third. Utah Valley answered right back in the bottom of the inning as junior Jessica Anderson lead off with a double to right center. Freshman Amanda Perez bunted her over to third and sophomore Samantha Telarroja came through with a bloop-single into left that brought home UVU's first run. Telarroja also came home in the inning, tying the game at two, as she scored on a wild pitch from BYU's starter Paige Affleck.
With the score all squared up at two's the Cougars came right back the very next inning and put up three more runs thanks to a couple big hits and a couple defensive miscues by the Wolverines. With BYU leading 5-2, Utah Valley got back-to-back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fourth off of Affleck. With the bases loaded and no outs, the Cougars then went to the bullpen bringing in Christie Zinanti. Zinanti then held the Wolverines scoreless as she got out of inning retiring the next three batters. She drew a pop-up from Anderson, struck out Amanda Perez, and struck out Telarroja.
BYU picked up two more runs in the top of fifth as they brought home two unearned runs to go up 7-2. The Cougars hit back-to-back solo home runs off of Jessica Martin in the seventh to go up 9-2.
Zinanti pitched very strong in relief for the Cougars as she shut the door on the Wolverines holding them scoreless the rest of the game. In the end the Wolverines struggled to capitalize with runners on stranding six total and had too many errors as they finished the game with four.
Zinanti came on and pitched four hitless innings to pick up the win for the Cougars. Martin ended up taking the loss to drop to 8-10 on the season. Despite suffering the loss Martin pitched very well including pitching the complete game, scattered nine hits and ended up allowing six of the nine runs earned.
UVU will on the road this weekend as they head to Greeley, Colo., to play a four-game set with Northern Colorado consecutive doubleheaders Friday and Saturday.
