April 23, 2010
CHICAGO -- Goose Kallunki homered three times on the day as Utah Valley topped Chicago State 8-1 and 7-6 on Friday in Great West Conference baseball. The sophomore hit two in the first game and one in the second as the Wolverines surpassed last season's win total to move to 19-14 on the year and 9-1 in the GWC.
Kallunki now has eight home runs on the year, tying him with Jace Brinkerhoff for the team lead. Blake Krahenbuhl pitched six innings in the first game and didn't allow an earned to improve to 5-1 on the season.
Braden Poole tossed four innings of relief in the second game and also didn't allow an earned run and picked up the first win of his young career. Brian Whatcott struck out the final two batters of the game with the bases loaded to earn his fifth save.
"Goose has really figured out how talented he can be and he's swinging the bat as good as anybody that I've been around," said UVU head coach Eric Madsen. "He's turning into the player that we know he has the potential to be. Braden pitched outstanding for us today and Brian really got after it there at the end."
"Chicago State battled the entire day but our guys did a good job of competing in some tough conditions. I thought we hit the ball really well at times and made some loud outs."
In the first game, UVU scored two runs in the third and another in the fourth, on a Chris Benson home run, to take a 3-0 lead. A four-run sixth gave the Wolverines a seven-run cushion before the Cougars (2-31, 0-10) got on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Kallunki homered in consecutive at-bats in the sixth and seventh.
Jake Rickenbach went 3-for-4 with two RBI and Austin Heaps had three hits, two of which were doubles. Brinkerhoff also had a pair of hits and drove in two runs for the Wolverines.
In the second game Chicago State took an early 1-0 lead before Rickenbach tied it in the top of the third with a solo home run to right-center. Billy Burgess then added a two-out double to score Jason Zundel and put UVU in front.
CSU tied it in the third and took a brief lead in the fourth when Michael Carpen reached on a bunt single and then came all the way around to score on two throwing errors on the same play.
The Utah Valley offense answered though when Rickenbach hit a one-out triple and scored on a base hit by Zundel to tie the game. Rickenbach finished the second game 3-for-4 and finished a double shy of the cycle.
An out later, Burgess again delivered with two outs hitting his sixth home of the year to put UVU up 5-3.
Kallunki led off the sixth with a no-doubter to left and Brinkerhoff singled home Zundel in the seventh to make it a 7-3 game. Chicago State fought its way back with three in the eighth setting up the ninth-inning drama.
A single and a walk opened the bottom of the ninth and a sac bunt by Austin McDowell put the winning run in scoring position. An intentional walk to Christian Prince loaded the bases with one out before Whatcott struck out Patrick Hernandez and Miguel Camacho to end the game. Whatcott fell behind both hitters 3-1 before coming back to strike out Hernandez looking and Camacho swinging to seal the win.
All three of Kallunki's home runs on the day came with the bases empty. He is now batting .415 with seven home runs in 10 conference games. Rickenbach is hitting .512 in GWC games and Brinkerhoff is batting .435.
The teams are scheduled to meet again on Saturday at 12 p.m. CT/11 a.m. MT but a Chicago-area storm is expected to bring rain overnight and for much of the rest of the weekend.
