April 7, 2011

NEWARK, New Jersey - Utah Valley will open defense of its 2010 Great West Conference Championship with a four-game series at NJIT beginning with a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m. MT. Saturday's game will begin at 4:30 p.m. MT and Sunday's finale is slated for a 9 a.m. MT start.

All four games during the series can be heard live on WolverineGreen.com with live stats available at NJITHighlanders.com

All eight Great West baseball schools open conference with a series this weekend in the conference's second season of regular season baseball. The Wolverines (7-17) are coming off of a 26-2 GWC season in 2010 before winning four games at the conference tournament to claim both the regular season and tournament titles.

UVU is coming off of an 11-3 loss at BYU on Tuedsay. Chris Benson tripled home two runs and later scored to give the Wolverines a 3-1 lead before the Cougars used several clucth hits and then pulled away late. Benson was named the Great West Player of the Week on Tuesday after going 10-for-17 with two home runs last weekend at Nevada.

NJIT is 5-15 on the year and was picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll. The Wolverines have won all five games between the two teams by an average score of 18-3 during the series. Each game has been played at Brent Brown Ballpark in Orem and this will be UVU's first trip to Newark.

The Highlanders are led by first-year coach Mike Cole. Sophomore pitcher Mark Leiter, Jr. was named the Great West Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday.

The Wolverines host in-state rival Utah on Tuesday at Brent Brown Ballpark before heading to Grand Forks, North Dakota to face the North Dakota Fighting Sioux next Fri-Sun in a four-game GWC series.