Utah Valley opens WAC Tournament play on Wednesday afternoon as the no. 3 seed at Logan Field in Seattle, Wash., and will play the winner of UT Arlington and Tarleton State at 5 p.m. MT.
All games in the 2024 UCU WAC Tournament will be broadcast on ESPN+. With a win, Utah Valley will advance to play California Baptist on Thursday at 11 a.m. MT. A loss would mean the Wolverines would play Thursday at 8 p.m. MT against a to be determined opponent. For updates regarding game times and opponents, follow @UVUSoftball on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
The Wolverines enter the tournament on a five-game winning streak, the team's longest of the season and longest since 2020. UVU's last loss came to SUU on April 27. The Wolverines were one strike away from closing out that game when the T-Birds won.
The Wolverines are led by first team All-WAC selection and RS-Jr INF Megan Gibbs, who set and extended the UVU single-season HR record on Saturday with two long balls against Utah Tech. The previous record was 13.Gibbs is also 4 RBIs away from setting the UVU single-season RBI record, which is currently 52 set by Britney Vansway in 2017. One more RBI would also secure just the 3rd 50-RBI season in program history.
Graduate RHP/UTL Halle Morris was named second team All-WAC, her first all-conference selection of her career. Morris spent the last 4 seasons at Utah, including the first two under Cody Thomson.
Morris leads the team in wins, ERA, innings pitched, and on-base percentage, and is second behind Gibbs in batting average, hits, and RBIs. Morris is 2nd on the team in multihit and multi-RBI games.
Freshman OF Amber Rodriguez has provided a spark at the top of the lineup. Rodriguez is tied for the team lead in runs scored and third in hits. Rodriguez is also on record watch, needing nine hits and eight runs scored to set the UVU freshman record in both categories.
Freshman RHP Avery Sapp has led a resurgent pitching staff over the last few weeks. Since April 12, Sapp has a team-best ERA of 1.25, including 2 complete game shutouts against UTA and SUU. Sapp is the second UVU freshman to have multiple shutouts in a season, joining Josi Summers who also had two in 2011.
As a team since April 12, the UVU pitching staff has a 2.11 ERA and are allowing an average of 2.38 runs per game. Excluding the game on April 16 against Utah State, that number goes down to 1.75 runs per game.
UVU HISTORY AT WAC TOURNEY
Utah Valley has won one WAC title since joining the league, and it came in the program's first season as a member. UVU went 4-0 at the 2014 tournament — also in Seattle — to take the WAC's NCAA AQ berth.
UVU missed the WAC Tournament last season for the first time since joining the league. The Wolverines ended up needing just one more win to qualify, as they tied for 8th with CBU, who took the season series last year.
TRENDING UPWARDS
Utah Valley finished in third place in the WAC this season, the program's second-best finish since joining the league in 2014 (Best: 2nd, 2018), and were projected to finish tied for 7th this year. The Wolverines posted their second-best WAC win percentage and most conference wins as a member of the WAC. Utah Valley's 23 wins this year are tied for the most wins pre-WAC tournament since 2014, and are currently tied for fifth-most in a single season in program history.
ALL GAS, NO BRAKES
The Wolverine pitching staff put up its best weekend of the season in last weekend's sweep of Utah Tech. Utah Valley pitchers allowed just two runs in three games, the fewest allowed in a three-game series since 2019 against CSU Bakersfield.
WELL THAT'S NOT NORMAL...
On Saturday against Utah Tech, Avery Sapp accomplished the rare feat of striking out four batters in a single inning. The first batter reached on a wild pitch on a swinging strike, then Sapp struck out the next three she faced in the inning.
GIBBS CHASING HISTORY
After setting the UVU single-season home run record on Saturday, Megan Gibbs is now chasing the single-season RBI record. Gibbs has 49 entering the WAC Tournament, and the current record holder is Britney Vansway, who had 52 in 2017. Gibbs also needs 15 total bases to set the record of 116 in that category, which is held by Rachel Hartgrove (2005).
