MESA, Arizona – Utah Valley University couldn't climb out of an early hole, falling 6-4 in the 2017 WAC Tournament opener against Northern Colorado on Wednesday at Hohokam Stadium. The Wolverines will now play an elimination game on Thursday at 11 a.m. PT/noon MT.
 
Northern Colorado (23-28) jumped ahead with a run in the first and four more in the second, with all five runs coming after there were two outs. Alex Kiel delivered a bases-loaded double in the second, scoring all three base runners. Jack Pauley doubled on the next pitch into the corner in right to make it 5-0 game.
 
The Wolverines (18-35) got 5.2 hitless innings from the combination of Jason Jourdan and Marco Briones out of the bullpen. Briones struck out six, matching a career high, in 3.2 innings of work while Jourdan tossed 2.1 innings to help keep UVU within striking distance. Trevor Peterson finished 3-for-4 with an RBI while David Modler was 2-for-4 with a triple and an RBI. 
 
"We needed to make a couple of plays early on and then knock guys in when we had chances to," said UVU head coach Eric Madsen. "It's frustrating because I feel like we had the game in our hands, even after falling behind. Our bullpen did a great job of keeping us in the game."
 
The Wolverines got on the board in the third when Modler tripled to left-center, scoring Jake Atkinson. Peterson followed with an RBI single back up the middle to bring in Modler and make it 5-2.
 
The Bears added a run in the fourth, but Jourdan came on to keep the more off the board. There was already a run in and no one out and Northern Colorado loaded the bases after Jourdan walked the first hitter he faced. But a strikeout, infield fly and another groundout stranded the bases full and limited any further damage. 
 
Utah Valley got a run back in the fifth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Trevor Howell, but the Wolverines also left the bases loaded to keep the deficit at three, 6-3.
 
In the eighth, Jake Berry led off with a base hit and moved to third when Callahan Moltzan doubled to center. A passed ball allowed Berry to score and Moltzan to move to third, but Northern Colorado reliever Jacob Howard got a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to strand a runner at third.
 
Utah Valley got a leadoff hit from Peterson to begin the ninth but Connor Leedholm retired the next three hitters to notch his second save and give Northern Colorado its first WAC Tournament win. Dylan Shiraki (1-1) got the win in one inning out of the bullpen while Jackson Cofer (3-8) took the loss, his first in three WAC Tournament starts. The loss ends Utah Valley's four-game WAC Tournament winning streak and also a string of three straight tournament-opening wins for the Wolverines. 
 
UVU will play the loser of Wednesday night's game between No. 3 Sacramento State and No. 6 Seattle U in the first elimination game of the tournament.