April 3, 2010
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley scored a school-record 14 runs in the second inning Saturday afternoon at Brent Brown Ballpark en route to a 23-9 victory over Southern Utah to split the four-game series with the T-Birds.
The Wolverines, who lost Game 3 of the series Friday night 13-11 after the T-Birds scored eight runs in the top of the ninth, returned the favor early in the series finale thanks to eight hits and one T-Bird error.
With the win, the Wolverines improve to 10-12 overall, and are 6-2 against SUU this season.
"That was pretty awesome for our guys after a tough, tough game on Friday," UVU baseball coach Eric Madsen said. "(In the second inning) our guys did a good job with staying with an approach. We had one little flare and everything else was hit on the screws."
To open the historic second inning, Kevin Arendse doubled. Goose Kallunki and Jason Zundel walked to load the bases before Cole McWhorter doubled home two. Jake Rickenbach walked and Sage Thorpe singled home the first of his four RBIs in the inning. He belted a three-run homer later in the frame.
Following Thorpe's RBI single, Jace Brinkerhoff had an RBI single as did Chris Benson, who increased his hitting streak to 20 games. Austin Heaps delivered a sacrifice fly to score another run. Zundel doubled home two more.
Following SUU thowing error that played two runs, Thorpe belted a three-run homer and Brinkerhoff, who increased his hitting streak to 12 games, went back-to-back with a solo shot.
Utah Valley has now scored 10 runs or more in an inning five times in school history, and three of them have been against the T-Birds. The Wolverines' previous single-inning high was 12 against the University of Washington on April 27, 2007.
UVU starter Zane Gray improved to 2-4 with the win. He allowed six runs (four earned) on 11 hits, while striking out three and walking just one.
Eight UVU players had at least two hits in the 23-hit attack led by Brinkerhoff, Benson, Arendse and Kallunki, who had three each, while Thorpe, Heaps, Zundel and Derek Amicone had two hits each. Kirk Doxey recorded his first homer of the year with a pinch-hit, three-run round-tripper in the bottom of the eighth.
In the series, the two teams combined for 87 runs on 119 hits with 13 homers.
The Wolverines are back in action Friday, April 9 when they open Great West Conference play with North Dakota. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brent Brown Ballpark.
