May 28, 2010
EDINBURG, Texas -- Zane Gray went the distance as Utah Valley won for the third straight day at the Great West Conference Tournament and for the 13th consecutive time overall, 9-2, over Houston Baptist on Friday.
The Wolverines (41-17) now move into Saturday's championship game and will face Northern Colorado at 5 p.m. CT at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.
"Zane Gray was awesome for us and put us in a good position with our bullpen. You couldn't ask for him to pitch better than he did and the guts he showed after getting hit with a line drive and keeping his composure was outstanding," said coach Eric Madsen.
"The guys did today what they've done all year. They didn't put any more into it than needed to be. It was just a game that we needed to go out and win and they went out and performed like we've done all year."
It was Gray's third complete game of the year as the junior allowed just the two runs on 11 scattered hits while striking out a pair. He worked his way through a pair of sixth-inning errors and runners at second and third and just one out.
Jake Gonzalez lined a ball off of Gray but the lefty was able to track the ball down and throw out Gonzalez before getting Derek Smith to hit another comebacker -- this time on an easy chopper -- to get out of the inning.
Goose Kallunki had four hits while Sage Thorpe had three hits and three batted in. Jake Rickenbach and Derek Amicone both had three hits as well.
Thorpe is 6-for-8 with seven RBI so far in the tournament and got the Wolverines on the board in the second with a base hit. Rickenbach added a two-out RBI single to put UVU up 2-0.
After the Huskies (28-31) got a run back in the second, UVU scored three times with two outs. Kallunki had an RBI single and after a ground-rule double by Kevin Arendse, Thorpe came thru again with a two-run single.
Utah Valley added another run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to build an 8-1 lead and Gray delivered a workman-like performance that included a pair of double plays late in the game.
The Wolverines won three out of four at Northern Colorado earlier this season, with the only loss coming against the Great West Conference Pitcher of the Year, Joe Sawicki. Sawicki will be Saturday's starter for the Bears while UVU will start Justin Campbell, who earned the win in a 3-1 Utah Valley victory in that earlier series.
