STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Payge Armendariz struck out a season-high six in a complete game while allowing no earned runs and Emma Haygood and Britney Moreno each drove in two to lead Utah Valley to a 5-1 win over the UT Arlington Mavericks in an elimination game at the WAC Tournament on Thursday.
Armendariz finished one strikeout shy of her career high of seven, set two seasons ago against SFA, and was masterful, keeping the Mavericks off-balance most of the afternoon. From the second to the sixth, Armendariz retired 14 straight and picked up four of her six punchouts in that span.
The Wolverine seniors showed out staring down elimination, with the six that hit recording at least one hit or RBI, including Armendariz who also went 2-for-3 at the dish. Moreno led off the game with a bunt single, the 205th hit of her career and the most in program history, surpassing Basia Query's previous record of 204.
After having only five completely scoreless frames during the three-game regular season series in Orem, the Mavericks and Wolverines traded zeroes through the first four innings, though UVU threatened multiple times and couldn't cash in. The Wolverines' best chance in those first four innings came in the second, stranding the bases loaded.
Utah Valley finally broke through in the fifth as Angelique Mann grounded out sharply to second to bring in Haygood.
The floodgates finally burst in the sixth as the Wolverines rallied for four all with two outs. Bailey Marvin walked and Megan Sterzer singled to set up Haygood, who smacked a double to left center to extend the lead to three. Two batters later, Moreno tacked on two more with a single to center.
An error in the seventh allowed UTA to get on the board, but Armendariz was able to work around the extra traffic to shut the door.
Utah Valley will face the winner of the Southern Utah-Utah Tech game on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. CT. With a win, the Wolverines would face the loser of the California Baptist-Tarleton State game immediately after for a spot in the championship. All games will be streamed on ESPN+, with live stats at GoUVU.com/stats.
