LAS VEGAS – Aaron Rice tossed a career-high eight innings in his first complete game of his career to lead Utah Valley to a 13-1 win over UNLV on Tuesday afternoon. UVU (22-11) was led offensively by Landon Frei, who finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs, with DJ Massey adding three hits in a 3-for-5 performance with two RBIs.
 
The Wolverines wasted no time scoring runs and tacked on a pair of runs in the first that started with a walk to Jayden Smith before he hustled home on a double by Frei to make it 1-0. Frei quickly scored after two wild pitches moved him to third and later home to make it 2-0.
 
Rice was strong on the hill for the Wolverines, recording 12 outs via groundball, including all three in the first inning to get his day started. He set numerous career-highs in his outing, including innings pitched and strikeouts, both of which he set earlier this season at Portland.
 
Following an inning-ending strikeout from Rice allowed Utah Valley to break through against former Utah Tech Trailblazer Evan Vasiliou, which started with a walk to Brody Block before Nate Bach doubled down the left field line, with Block being thrown out trying to score from first to keep the game up at 2-0.
 
Following a walk to Joe McBride, the Wolverines came up with back-to-back two out doubles,first from Massey down the left field line to score Bach and make it 3-0, Utah Valley but then Jimmy De Anda sent one to center field to score two runs and put UVU in front 5-0.
 
The offense picked right back up in the top of the fifth inning when Dominic Longo II worked a four-pitch walk, and Frei homered to left field for his seventh of the season. He now leads the Wolverines with 42 RBIs this season while hitting .321. Leading 7-0, Rice went back to work on the mound in the home half of the fifth inning and struck out Chase Ditmar before getting the next two hitters to fly out to end the inning.
 
In the eighth inning, the Wolverines pulled away, scoring six runs in the inning, and took advantage of Massey being hit and De Anda working a walk to put two runners on base. Derek Houston entered the game and hit for Smith, who walked to load the bases. UVU went up 8-1 when Longo II was walked and then jumped up 10-1 on Frei's double to left center for his fourth and fifth RBIs of the game.
 
Following a pitching change by the Rebels, the bases were once again loaded after a walk to Block before Bach singled home a run, and McBride added a sacrifice fly to put UVU in front 12-1. The final run for the Wolverines came in on Massey's two-out single to center field. It was his second consecutive multi-RBI game and fifth of the season.
 
Rice continued to be tough on UNLV hitters with a pair of strikeouts in the eighth inning before the game ended.
 
The Wolverines have now tallied ten or more runs in 17 contests this season, including four of their last five games.  

UP NEXT
Utah Valley heads to Grand Canyon this week for a three-game WAC series. First place is on the line, and the Lopes currently have a one-game lead on the Wolverines for the top spot in the conference. The series starts on Friday, Apr. 11, at 8:00 p.m. MT from Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark.