OREM, Utah – Utah Valley University outslugged Chicago State, winning 11-10 in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader to clinch the weekend WAC series.

The teams combined to hit seven home runs, with Jacob Vanitvelt homering twice, including a grand slam, for the Cougars (8-27, 4-7). Callahan Moltzan, Jake Atkinson and Jackson Overlund all hit home runs for Utah Valley (13-23, 6-5), while the four from CSU came on a pair of back-to-back situations in third and eighth innings.
 
Patrick Wolfe got the last four outs of the game to notch his ninth save, tying him with Kyle Valgardson for the single-season school record. It's the second save in as many games for Wolfe, who retired each of the four hitters he faced, and struck out the side in the ninth. Marco Briones (2-0) got the win after a career-high seven strikeouts on a career-long 4.2 innings pitched. 
 
Both teams put crooked numbers on the board in the third with the Cougars scoring six times in the top half of the inning and the Wolverines getting all six back in the bottom half. Of the 12 combined runs in the inning, 11 were scored after there were two outs, including all six by Chicago State.
 
The Cougars loaded the bases with a one-out double, followed by a two-out walk and a hit-by-pitch. Vanitvelt then delivered a big blow, on an opposite field grand slam to give CSU a 4-0 lead. Matt Paciello made it back-to-back for Chicago State, homering to left-center to make it 5-0. Following the two home runs, the next three batters all singled, with Matt Sullivan driving in Cody Freund to cap the scoring.
 
In the bottom of the inning, David Modler singled with one out and scored when Trevor Howell doubled to left. Two batters later, a throwing error on a grounder off the bat of Overlund allowed Howell to score and extended the inning. That error was costly, leading to five of the six runs coming in unearned. Zac Willis followed Overlund with an RBI single and Jake Berry had a base hit before Moltzan tied it at 6-6 with an opposite-field, three-run home run, his first of the season.
 
Utah Valley took the lead in the fourth when Trevor Peterson had a two-out base hit with Modler aboard before Overlund brought both runners home with a double past third, giving the Wolverines an 8-6 advantage.
 
After Chicago State got one of those runs back in the fifth, Atkinson hit his first home run of the year in the bottom of the inning to make it a 9-7 game.
 
Overlund extended it to an 11-7 game with his fifth home-run, a two-run shot to left that scored Peterson, who doubled with two outs and nobody on. Overlund had four RBIs, the third time he has driven in four runs in a game this season. Moltzan had three RBIs and Berry had a three-hit game for UVU. Freund and Sullivan both had three hits for Chicago State while Vanitvelt had five batted in.
 
Julian Russell and Vanitvelt both homered in the eighth to get Chicago State back within two runs. The Cougars continued their rally, getting three more base hits in the inning to get within a run, 11-10, before Wolfe closed the door.