May 14, 2011
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley notched its seventh shutout of the year and eighth straight win in finishing off a four-game sweep of Houston Baptist, 9-0, on Saturday afternoon at Brent Brown Ballpark.
Blake Krahenbuhl and three other pitchers combined on the six-hit shutout. Krahenbuhl (6-2) pitched 7.1 innings, allowing just four hits while striking out five. Ty Hansen, Craig Brimhall and Josh Swenson got the final five outs to close out the win.
The Wolverines inched closer to clinching their second Great West Conference title, moving to 19-1 in conference and 27-20 overall.
"We pitched it great today. Really I thought our guys pitched well all weekend," said head coach Eric Madsen. "We had a break and took advantage of it and that's kind of how we've been going. When we get opportunities we seem to thrive on that."
Chris Benson had three hits to lead UVU and reached on an infield single with two down in the first before coming home on a double by Austin Heaps.
The Huskies (15-37, 13-11) threatened to tie the score in the fifth, putting runners at first and third with two out but Krahenbuhl struck out Collin Hetzler on an 11-pitch battle to end the inning.
The Wolverines got two more in the sixth when Court Zollinger doubled down the line in left to bring in Goose Kallunki and then scored himself on a double to left center by Jason Zundel.
Krahenbuhl retired the final eight hitters he faced and left the game with one out in the eighth after 110 pitches.
Utah Valley pulled away with six runs in the eighth inning, taking advantage of two HBU errors in the frame and getting a two-run double from Cole McWhorter and an RBI single from Benson.
The Wolverines will play at Utah on Tuesday at Spring Mobile Ballpark in the final non-conference game of the year. The final Great West series of the year begins on Thursday, May 19 at Brent Brown Ballpark against second-place Northern Colorado in a series that could determine the regular season champion and top seed in the conference tournament.
As of Saturday, UNC was 18-4 in the GWC with a doubleheader scheduled for Sunday at Chicago State. The GWC Tournament begins Tuesday, May 24 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
