BELLEVUE, Wash. – Utah Valley used a combined pitching effort to allow just three hits while winning the opening game of a three-game series against Seattle U, 5-1 on Friday afternoon at Bannerwood Ballpark. Logan Gerling went a season-high 7.0 innings, allowing one run for UVU (12-7) and limiting the SU (2-12) bats.
 
"Tonight was a great way to start WAC play. Our pitching was outstanding, and we had some great at-bats all game long," said UVU head coach Eddie Smith.
 
The Wolverines scored first in the second after a walk to Trey Cutchen and a single from Matthew Schwarz. Garrett Broussard had his 15^th RBI of the season on a single after a base hit to score Cutchen and go up 1-0. UVU went up 3-0 after RBI singles from Daniel Dickinson and Patrick Mills.
 
The Redhawks scored one run in the fifth inning to cut the UVU lead to 3-1. Gerling struck out a season-high nine in the victory to move to 4-0 on the season. Ethan Fowlks earned his third save of the year, going 2.0 innings and allowing one hit on three strikeouts.
 
Utah Valley added a pair of insurance runs in the late innings scoring one in the eighth and ninth innings. In the eighth, Schwarz singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Bach was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second before a groundout put two runners in scoring position. Schwarz scored on a wild pitch to put UVU in front 4-1.
 
In the ninth, Mills doubled to lead off the inning and immediately got into scoring position. He would advance to third after a stolen base and score on an RBI single by Calyn Halvorson to put UVU up 5-1.
 
Dickinson reached base four times for UVU in the game on two hits and two walks. Schwarz extended his reached base streak to 11 games, and his hitting streak is now at seven.
 
The Wolverines and Redhawks will play game two of the series tomorrow at Bannerwood Ballpark in Bellevue. The first pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. MT and will air on WAC International with live stats on UVUstats.com.