OREM, Utah – Utah Valley baseball won its fourth consecutive series on Sunday afternoon with a 7-2 victory over Abilene Christian. Jacob Heppner struck out a career-high eight hitters in 5 2/3 innings, surrendering three hits to move to 3-0 on the year for UVU (18-10, 4-2). Carston Herman earned his first save of the season, going 3 1/3 innings without allowing a hit to ACU (17-12, 2-4).
 
Heppner struck out the side of the top of the second inning, including getting Preseason All-WAC infielder Ben Greer and Louis Bussard. The UVU hitters jumped on the strong performance from their starter and got the offense going in the home half. Landon Frei walked before moving to second on a single from Nate Bach. Brody Block's single made it 1-0 Wolverines; it was Block's second two-hit game of the series and sixth of the season.  
 
The Wolverines loaded the bases later in the inning after DJ Massey beat out a bunt single, and ACU starting pitcher Cade McGarrh then hit Luke Iverson to make it 2-0, and he later gave up a second free pass on a walk to Dominic Longo II to put UVU in front 3-0.
 
The Wolverines took a 4-0 lead when Mason Strong launched his third home run of the season over the left field fence. He finished 2-for-5 and has 13 multi-hit games this season in UVU's offense.
 
Heppner retired eight in a row from the end of the third inning through the first out of the sixth inning before the Wildcats pushed across their only two runs of the game on a double by Nick Arias in the sixth.
 
Utah Valley answered the two runs by the Wildcats in the sixth after De Anda led off with a walk before moving to second on a sac bunt by DJ Massey, putting him in scoring position. He moved to third after Iverson hit a high fly ball to the warning track. Smith knocked him in with a single through the left side to increase the lead to 5-2.
 
They extended their lead in the seventh inning after Block worked a walk before De Anda tripled to right center field to make it 6-2 in favor of Utah Valley before Massey legged out a single to third base to make it 7-2.
 
Herman was brilliant out of the bullpen for the Wolverines, only allowing one walk and one hit batter over the final 3 1/3 innings. He struck out Greer to end the sixth inning and then recorded the final two outs of the eighth inning via a swing and miss from the hitters.
 
UP NEXT
The Wolverines are scheduled to host Colorado Mesa on Tuesday, Apr. 1, at 2:05 p.m. MT at UCCU Ballpark. UVU will then start an eight-game road trip in St. George against Utah Tech on Friday, Apr. 4, before playing two games at UNLV and three at Grand Canyon.