SALT LAKE CITY — Britney Moreno had a three-hit day including her school-record seventh triple of the season and Amber Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with an RBI as Utah Valley dropped an 8-4 contest to the Utah Utes on Tuesday night at Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
The Wolverines scored first and held a lead entering the bottom of the fourth, but a six-run two-out rally in that inning from the Utes proved to be the difference
Utah Valley jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first after the first four Wolverines reached. Amber Rodriguez dunked a single into shallow left center to score Britney Moreno from second. Two batters later, Megan Sterzer roped a liner off the pitcher that deflected perfectly to second to start a double play, but scored Angelique Mann from third.
Walks bit the Wolverine pitchers, as Utah Valley issued five free passes that directly led to the Utes' first two rallies. Lily Riley walked three in the third before Utah picked up an RBI single.
Utah put up a six-spot in the fourth, all with two outs. The big blast of the inning was a grand slam from Shonty Passy.
Utah Valley got the tying run into the on-deck circle in the top sixth, loading the bases with one out, but were unable to push any runs across.
Utah pushed one more run across in the bottom of the sixth via a sacrifice fly.
Utah Valley trimmed the lead down to four in the seventh after Moreno led off the inning with a triple then came in to score on a sac fly by Mann. An error from the Utes on a bunt single by Kendyl Purdy pushed across the final run of the game.
The Wolverines will wrap up the regular season this weekend against another in-state foe in the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. MT, then close out the series and the regular season on Saturday at noon. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+, with live stats at GoUVU.com/stats.
