May 25, 2010
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Gametracker vs. Chicago State
Gametracker vs. North Dakota
Gametracker vs. Houston Baptist
Wolverines Begin GWC Tournament Wed vs Chicago State
Great West Champion and top seed Utah Valley University opens the 2010 conference tournament in Edinburg, Texas on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. CT against No. 8 seed Chicago State. The Wolverines (38-17) will play all three of their pooled games at 12:30 p.m. CT and face No. 5 North Dakota on Thursday and No. 4 Houston Baptist on Friday. The winner of the pool will advance to Saturday's championship at 5 p.m. CT.
The other pool consists of No. 2 Northern Colorado, No. 3 NYIT, No. 6 Texas-Pan American and No. 7 NJIT.
About the Wolverines
UVU enters the tournament on a 10-game winning streak, one shy of a school record set earlier this season, and as the top hitting team in the country with a team average of .370. The Wolverines are also first in doubles (180), hits (777) and total bases (1,250) and rank in the top five in several other categories including RBI and runs scored.
Jace Brinkerhoff is the national leader in hits (113) and RBI (84) and is tied for the lead in batting average at .463 while Jake Rickenbach's 85 runs lead the country. Chris Benson is also ranked third in run batted in with 81 and in the top 10 with 10 triples.
After winning at BYU last Tuesday, Utah Valley swept four games at Houston Baptist to close out the regular season with a school-record 38 wins.
The Wolverines got a grand slam from Goose Kallunki, a three-run home run from Chris Benson and then a 10-inning double, go-ahead double from Brinkerhoff to defeat their in-state rivals 14-12 in 10 innings. The win over the Cougars put UVU's in-state record in 2010 at 9-4 including 7-0 on the road.
In the weekend series at HBU, the Wolverines opened with win of 9-6 and 19-10 before falling behind in the third game after a two-run home run from the Huskies' Robbie Buller in the eighth inning. With two outs and nobody on the ninth, Derek Amicone singled to center before Rickenbach supplied the heroics with a home run off of Matt Warren to put the Wolverines in front by a run.
In the finale on Saturday, UVU scored three runs in the first and second, four in the third and five in the fourth and led 16-1 before cruising to a 21-3 win and the series sweep. Brinkerhoff had five hits, five runs and six RBI and Benson also drove in five for UVU.
About the Opposition
Chicago State lost four games at Northern Colorado over the weekend to finish the regular season 4-49 overall and 2-26 in conference.
The Wolverines swept the four-game series at CSU this year including surviving a 7-6 game after the bases were loaded with just one out.
North Dakota and UVU opened the GWC season in Orem in April. The Wolverines swept that series as well but escaped the finale with a 6-5 win. The Fighting Sioux, who are the fifth seed in the tournament, are led by first baseman Jake Magner, who leads the GWC with 19 home runs.
Houston Baptist is the fourth seed and tied with the third best conference record with NYIT at 15-13. The Huskies are 26-30 overall and led by the bats of Buller, with nine home runs and Paul Prestera, who is batting .372 from the lead-off spot.
