Utah Valley vs UT Rio Grande Valley
Friday, May 13 - Sunday, May 15Â |Â 6pm/6pm/noon
Orem, Utah | Brent Brown Ballpark
Live Video | Live Audio | StatBroadcast
UVU Series Notes | UTRGV Series Notes
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Utah Valley University hosts the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in its final home series of the 2016 season. The series begins Friday night at 6 p.m. MT at Brent Brown Ballpark with games Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at noon. Saturday's game is also Senior Night.
The Wolverines (28-20, 13-8) sit in a tie for third with Sacramento State in the WAC standings with six games to go. UVU is two games back of New Mexico State for second and three of league-leading Seattle U. The Wolverines hold the tiebreaker with NM State and need to make up the two games in order to move up in the standings and earn a bye in the opening round of the WAC Tournament.
UVU dropped its final midweek of the season on Tuesday against in-state rival BYU. The win gave the Cougars the season series but Utah Valley still finished with a 4-2 record again in-state opponents this season.
Last weekend the Wolverines took two of three on the road at Sacramento State in a pivotal WAC series. After being shut out in the opener, UVU notched a shutout of its own after
Danny Beddes pitched a no-hitter thru six and allowed just two hits over eight innings.
The Wolverines picked up the series win after a 3-2 victory behind 7.2 innings from
Jake Mayer and three solo home runs in the top of the sixth inning. The Wolverines trailed 1-0 in the sixth before
Zac Willis and
Greyson Bogden went back-to-back for the second time this season and
Craig Brinkerhoff followed them two batters later. Brinkerhoff also hit a home run on Tuedsday against BYU, his team-high eighth of the season.
Kyle Valgardson came on in relief of Mayer and registered the final four outs of the game to pick up his seventh save of the season.
UT Rio Grande Valley (19-24, 8-10) is currently seventh in the standings and sit as the No. 6 seed with Grand Canyon not eligible for the postseason until 2018. The Vaqueros rank second in the WAC in team ERA (4.25) with Friday starter Johnny Gonzalez also second in the WAC with a 2.33 earned run average.
UTRGV shut out CSU Bakersfield last Friday to open its most recent series, but the Roadrunners won the final two games, including a three-hit shutout in the finale. Last season the Vaqueros, who at that time were the Texas-Pan American Broncs, won two of three in Edinburg, Texas against UVU. The Wolverines have lost three straight series to UTGRV, dating back to 2013.
The Wolverines finish up the WAC regular season next weekend at Chicago State and will head to Mesa for the 2016 WAC Tournament, which is set to begin on May 25 at Hohokam Park, spring home of the Oakland A's.
