STANFORD, Calif. – Utah Valley baseball suffered a 4-3 late-inning loss on Saturday against Stanford University. UVU (10-10) held a lead into the ninth inning before the Cardinal (8-12) rallied late to win. Jacob Heppner tied a career high with seven innings pitched, which was a season high for the southpaw, while Derek Houston hit his first career home run and Hunter Katschke launched his eighth of the season.
 
Utah Valley's Heppner worked through a jam in the bottom of the first inning after Teddy Tokheim singled and Charlie Bates walked, but the redshirt junior was able to get JJ Moran to foul out to keep the game scoreless.
 
The Wolverines, in the second inning, took advantage of two of Stanford's three errors in the game, starting after Mason Strong's single. He advanced on a throwing error by Quinten Marsh on a failed pickoff move and later stole third base and scored when the Stanford catcher's throw went into left field to make it 1-0, UVU.
 
Heppner settled in and did not allow a hit again until the fourth inning, when the Cardinal threatened to tie the game with a runner on second with one out, but a popout and a flyout ended the fourth inning with the Wolverines up 1-0. In the fifth, Stanford had the tying run again on second with less than two outs. The inning ended with Heppner's second strikeout of the day when he got Rintaro Sasaki swinging.
 
The Wolverines looked to add to their 1-0 lead in the sixth inning when Chipper Beck singled to left field before Strong's second knock of the game, this time coming with two outs in the inning. They could not get a run across as Mason Hamlin grounded out to end the sixth inning.
 
Utah Valley extended its lead in the seventh on Houston's first career blast to start the seventh inning on a 375-foot shot to make it 2-0, UVU. The Cardinal came around to score a run in the home half of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Ethan Hott to cut the Wolverines' lead to 2-1.
 
In the eighth inning, the lead was extended back to 3-1 when Hunter Katschke took an 0-1 pitch over the center-field fence on a ball that traveled 408 feet. It was his team-high eighth home run of the season. He has now homered in three of the last four games and in the last two consecutive contests for UVU.
 
Rintaro Sasaki homered to start the eighth inning to cut the lead down to 3-2, and Heppner ended the day with a seaon-high seven-inning performance. The southpaw also achieved the mark last season against Utah Tech when he tossed a complete game in St. George.
 
Cooper Littledike came in and got the next three outs to keep UVU in front 3-2 heading to the ninth inning. The Cardinal rallied with back-to-back doubles from Eric Jeon and Luke Lavin to tie the game before Sasaki singled home the game-winner for the walk-off win.
 
UP NEXT
Utah Valley and Stanford will play a doubleheader on Sunday, March 22, starting at 2:05 p.m. MT on ACC Network Extra. The series will wrap up on Monday afternoon with a 1:05 p.m. MT game.