Feb. 18, 2011
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Blake Krahenbuhl and Josh Swenson combined on a five-hit shutout as Utah Valley opened the 2011 season with a 3-0 win over Big 10 Northwestern in the opening game of the Red Raider Classic at Texas Tech University on Friday.
The Wolverines then had a ninth-inning rally fall short in a 3-2 loss to Western Michigan in their second game of the day and will next face host Texas Tech on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT.
Krahenbuhl tossed five innings of three-hit baseball, striking out three and Swenson made his first Division I appearance in four innings of relief to earn the save.
"Our pitching was great and we played really good defensively in both games today," said head coach Eric Madsen. "We have to sharpen up our baserunning and need to make pitchers work more. I thought we swung the bats pretty well and hit some balls hard but have to do a better job getting the big hit."
The win over Northwestern is Utah Valley's first shutout since Marcus Moore threw a three-hitter to end the 2008 season at Hawai'i and the Wolverines' first win on opening day since transitioning to Division I in 2004. It also ran UVU's win streak to 15 games after finishing 2010 with 14 consecutive victories before the streak was snapped in the narrow loss.
Billy Burgess had three hits and Jason Zundel and two hits and an RBI against the Wildcats. Cole McWhorter tripled to lead off the fourth and Zundel's base hit brought in the first run. UVU got its second run following a Northwestern error with two outs in the fourth.
McWhorter walked and Zundel doubled to begin the eighth before Chris Benson grounded to third, scoring McWhorter for the third and final run.
Swenson retired Northwestern 1-2-3 in the ninth to give Utah Valley a win in its first-ever game against a school from the Big 10.
Against Western Michigan, Utah Valley trailed 3-0 until getting run on a two-out base hit from Alex Exon to score Billy Burgess in the seventh.
In the ninth, Benson singled and Burgess walked before a sac-bunt from Austin Heaps pushed the tying run into scoring position. Benson came across to make it 3-2 when Goose Kallunki reached on a fielder's choice but Burgess was cut down at third. Exon then grounded out to third, ending the comeback attempt.
Justin Campbell pitched six solid innings but took the loss. He struck out six and allowed three runs on eight hits. Ryan Chadwick threw three scoreless innings for Utah Valley out of the bullpen, which got seven scoreless relief innings on Friday.
Kallunki, who extended his hit streak to 23 games with a base hit in the opening game, went 0-for-3 to have his streak end just one game shy of tying the school record.
