May 27, 2010
Photo Gallery
EDINBURG, Texas -- Utah Valley University baseball accomplished its first-ever 40-win season at the NCAA level and in the process won a school-record 12th straight game, 11-7, over North Dakota on Thursday at the Great West Conference tournament.
"There aren't very many teams in the country that get to 40 wins and for us to do it is a compliment to the players and the coaching staff and how hard they've worked to get there," said head coach Eric Madsen. "It's one of the goals we wanted to reach and it's awesome to reach that goal."
Jace Brinkerhoff went 3-for-3 with an RBI, Chris Benson also had three hits and two RBI and Kevin Arendse added three hits as the Wolverines -- who lead the nation in batting, hits and doubles -- finished with 18 hits and improved to 2-0 in the tournament. Benson also leads the country with 88 RBI and Brinkerhoff is right behind at 85.
The Wolverines will now face Houston Baptist on Friday at 12:30 p.m. CT with the winner moving on to Saturday's championship game.
Jake Rickenbach had two hits and two RBI and Goose Kallunki extended his hit streak to 20 games with two hits including a double in the second inning.
Sage Thorpe had a two-run double for the second straight day after his double gave the Wolverines a walk-off win over Chicago State in the ninth inning on Wednesday.
Blake Krahenbuhl moved to 9-1 on the season after pitching into the eighth inning and allowing three runs on four hits. Krahenbuhl was perfect thru 4.2 innings while Braden Poole got credit for his first save after throwing the final two innings.
The Wolverines (40-17) led 1-0 in the fifth when Rickenbach and Jason Zundel each singled home a run to put UVU up 3-0. Later in the frame, Benson had a two-out triple to left-center that scored Brinkerhoff and Billy Burgess.
After the Fighting Sioux (18-35) crept back into the game with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth, UVU scored six times in the top of the ninth to take an 11-3 lead.
North Dakota scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth -- all with two outs -- with three coming on Jake Magner's 21st home run of the season. The home run for Magner sets a new single-season record for the UND baseball program.
