OREM, Utah – Utah Valley University rallied with a pair of seventh-inning home runs but fell just short, 6-5, to BYU in the second game of a doubleheader on Tuesday in the UCCU Crosstown Clash. The Cougars (12-15) swept the twin bill, also securing a 10-1 win in the opener earlier in the day.
Down 6-2 in their final at-bat of game two, the Wolverines (7-17) got a solo home run from
Madison Sisco and a two-out, two-run shot from
Lyndsay Steverson to get within a run, but BYU survived the late flurry.
Utah Valley – playing for the first time at home this season -- scored single runs in the bottom of the first in both games, but both times BYU came back to secure the sweep. The two teams will meet again on April 16 in Provo.
In game one, the Wolverines led 1-0 before BYU scored in each of the next four innings to end the game via run-rule after five innings. The Cougars got two in the second, four in the third and, after a single run in the fourth, pulled away with a three-run home run from Libby Sugg. Sugg finished the first game 2-for-3 with a double, home run and three RBIs.
In the second game,
Basia Query gave UVU a 1-0 lead with a base hit that scored
Brianna Moeller in the bottom of the first.
BYU got four runs in the third after its first five hitters all reached via hits. Rylee Jensen led off the inning with a home run before three straight base hits and a double had the Cougars in front 4-1. UVU starter
Devyn Cretz kept the damage there though, retiring the next three hitters to strand a runner at second.
After Jensen drove in another run with an RBI base hit in the fourth, Utah Valley got a pair of two-out hits to get that run back and make it 5-2.
Peyton Prigge singled back up the middle and
Abbie Tuttle doubled over Jensen's head in left for an RBI double.
A single insurance run in the seventh proved big for the Cougars, who withstood the one-out home run from Sisco and later Steverson's team-leading sixth home run of the season.
Autumn Moffat got the win for BYU and was within a strike of going the distance on a pair of hitters but was chased after Steverson's home run. Kerisa Viramontes got the final out to earn her second save.
Sugg went 3-for-4 in game two, going a combined 5-for-7 during the doubleheader. Steverson had two hits for the Wolverines in game two.
The Wolverines continue the homestand with three WAC games beginning Friday at 2 p.m. MT against UMKC. The teams will wrap up the series with a Saturday doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. MT.
