Utah Valley heads up I-15 to Ogden for the rubber match of the season series against the Weber State Wildcats on Tuesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. MT, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
The Wolverines and Wildcats split the prior two meetings back in March. Both games were played in Orem at Wolverine Softball Field after the first was relocated from Boise due to weather.
Utah Valley won the first meeting on March 8, 11-3 in five innings. After falling behind 2-0, the Wolverines rattled off 11-straight runs — including a nine-run third inning — to take the lead. In that game, Megan Gibbs went 2-for-2 with a grand slam and six RBIs.
Weber State bounced back with a 5-2 win just five days later on March 13. The Wildcats bounced back from a 2-1 deficit in that game with four unanswered runs to take the win and even the season series.
The all-time series is very tight, with UVU holding a slim 20-19 advantage. The Wolverines are 8-6 in Ogden. Weber State won the last meeting on its home turf, 7-0 back in 2022.
LAST TIME OUT
Utah Valley fell 4-2 to Big 12 foe Iowa State on Sunday. Saige Nielsen hit a two-out, two-run home run — her first as a Wolverine — to cut the deficit in half, but it proved to be too little, too late.
The Wolverines went 1-4 last week, falling to Utah State 10-5 on Tuesday and taking one out of three from SFA over the weekend.
The Utah Valley offense has been scuffling of late, as it seems most hard-hit contact has been finding opponents' gloves. Since sweeping a doubleheader against Seattle U on April 2, the Wolverines have gone 3-8, and have scored more than five runs just twice in that time. UVU has been putting the ball in play plenty, as the Wolverines are averaging just 2.82 strikeouts per game in that stretch.
In that same time, the Wolverine pitching staff has found a groove and has shown some of their best stuff of the season. Over her last three outings, freshman RHP Avery Sapp has allowed three ER in 18.1 innings, including a complete game shutout at UTA, the first by a UVU freshman since 2012.
Sophomore LHP Payge Armendariz has also put up some strong pitching outings of late. In her last two starts, Armendariz went 9.1 innings against UTA and 9 innings against SFA, allowing a combined three ER and striking out 12.
UP NEXT
Utah Valley heads to Cedar City for its final WAC road series of the season against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. The series will be Saturday/Sunday instead of the usual Friday/Saturday. First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT, with Sunday's series finale slated for noon. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+.
