May 12, 2011
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley survived a late comeback by Houston Baptist to win the opener of a four-game series, 6-5, on Thursday night at Brent Brown Ballpark.
Cole McWhorter went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI as the Wolverines improved to 24-20 overall and 16-1 in the Great West Conference.
UVU led 5-2 in the eighth but a three-run inning by the Huskies (15-34, 13-8) tied the game before Kai Hatch scored what turned out to be the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning. Josh Swenson threw a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his fourth save of the year.
"It was good to see Josh come out and go right after it. He did a great job closing the game out," said head coach Eric Madsen. "I felt like we missed some opportunities early and was disappointed with our adjustments at the plate. Our guys need to stay focused. Houston Baptist is a good team."
Jeremy Gendlek threw seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts, and was in line for the win before the late HBU runs. Gendlek extended his unearned run streak in the Great West to 33 innings before Robbie Buller hit a two-run home run in the fourth to tie the game at two. It was Buller's GWC-leading 12th homer of the year.
The two early Wolverine runs came on a two-out single by Billy Burgess that scored Austin Heaps in the second and an RBI double by McWhorter in the third.
Chris Benson singled in Kirk Doxey to put UVU back in front in the fifth and Jason Zundel's fielder's choice in the sixth brought in Alex Exon - who doubled - to make the score 4-2. McWhorter then hit his fourth home run of the season in the seventh to give the Wolverines the three-run lead.
In the Huskies' half of the eighth, Buller singled to right to drive in Luke Clements and Jake Gonzalez doubled home Collin Hetzler to make it a one-run game. Buller then came home on a wild pitch to tie the game.
Hatch led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk, moved to second on a sac-bunt by Exon, to third on a fly-ball to right by Burgess and then scored on the wild pitch.
Benson, Heaps and Burgess had two hits each in addition to McWhorter's day. Buller had three hits and three RBI for Houston Baptist.
The series continues on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. MT.
