WICHITA, Kansas – Utah Valley University had a pair of early three-run leads but couldn't hold on, falling 6-5 at Wichita State on Sunday. The Shockers (3-0) swept the three-game, season-opening series from the Wolverines (0-3), winning a pair of one-run contests.
                                                                                                                                     
UVU took its first lead of the series with two runs in the top of the first. Jackson Overlund doubled home Trevor Howell with one out before Callahan Moltzan brought home Trevor Peterson on an RBI groundout.
 
Jake Atkinson singled to lead off the third and later scored on a two-out RBI base hit by Howell to give Utah Valley a 3-0 lead.
 
A pair of solo home runs allowed the Shockers to make it a 3-2 game. Luke Ritter homered to lead off the bottom of the second and Greyson Jenista hit a towering, opposite field home run with one out in the third.
 
Utah Valley got one of those runs back in the fourth. Paul Estrada singled to lead off the inning and then, on a flyball to deep center off the bat of Kade Poulsen, took second base. That 90 feet proved big when Jake Berry singled with two outs to score Estrada from second to give UVU a 4-2 lead.
 
In the fifth, Peterson singled and moved to third when Zac Willis doubled past third. Overlund drove in Peterson for his secondRBI of the day with a ground ball to short, pushing the lead back to three, 5-2.
 
The Shockers tied it in the bottom half of the fifth with an RBI single from Jenista and a two-run single by Alec Bohm. Wichita State got the winning run across in the seventh when Bohm doubled to lead off and then scored on the next pitch, an RBI single from Ritter.
 
Both teams finished with 11 hits with eight of UVU's nine starters collecting at least one. Peterson, Atkinson and Berry had two hits apiece. Jenista went 3-for-5 with the top four hitters in the Wichita State's order accounting for nine of the team's hits and all six of its RBIs.
 
Adam Keller got the win, throwing two perfect innings in relief. Ben Hecht picked up the save for WSU while Olguin took the loss for Utah Valley.
 
The Wolverines travel to Northern California next weekend for three games at UC Davis (Feb. 24-26) and a midweek game at San Francisco (Feb. 28).