April 18, 2010
GREELEY, Colo. -- Utah Valley took sole possession of first place in the Great West Conference, defeating Northern Colorado twice on the road Sunday, 23-9 in the first game and 3-1 in a pitcher's duel in game two.
The Wolverines got six shutout innings from Justin Campbell and three from Brian Whatcott to take the finale and win the series 3-1 and move to 17-14 overall and 7-1 in the GWC.
"Beating Northern Colorado on their home field is an outstanding accomplishment," said UVU head coach Eric Madsen. "They're a very good team and for us to come back after dropping the first game and to respond the way we did was awesome. Our pitching was outstanding today."
The game was scoreless into the sixth inning when Jace Brinkerhoff singled to right to score Jake Rickenbach with two outs. Jason Zundel hit his third home run of the year in the eighth to give UVU a 2-0 lead.
The Bears (14-18, 5-3) got a run back in the eighth when Mike Raudenbush lined a base hit into right that took a high hop over the head of Billy Burgess and turned into a triple, allowing Kyle Hardman to score.
The Wolverines got a break in the ninth when a throwing error allowed Chris Benson to score before Whatcott got Jarrod Berggren to ground out to short to end the game.
Mark Shannon, who finished with two hits at the plate, took the touch-luck loss after throwing eight innings and allowing just two runs on eight hits while striking out four.
In the first game on Sunday, a game that started on Saturday before being halted due to rain, UVU got 10 runs in the top of the first including a grand slam from Zundel to race out to an early lead.
The Wolverines scored four times in the first on Saturday before the game was halted with the bases loaded with one out when Zundel came to bat Sunday. His home run, on a 3-2 pitch to left-center, gave Utah Valley an 8-0 lead. The Wolverines scored two more times in the inning with Benson and Brinkerhoff each getting two RBI singles in the frame.
UVU finished with 21 hits in the game with four each coming from Jace Brinkerhoff and Chris Benson. Benson drove in five runs in the game while Brinkerhoff drove in three and scored five times.
Sam Armstrong got the win to move to 2-1 in five innings of work out of the bullpen. Braden Poole struck out three in two perfect innings in relief.
Utah Valley added six more in the fourth and scored in eight of the nine innings to tie a season-high with 23 runs.
The Wolverines travel to Chicago State next week for a four-game GWC series beginning Friday in the Windy City.
