April 10, 2007

Box Score

Orem, Utah - Southern Utah hit five home runs on a cold and windy night to win the nightcap of a doubleheader, 16-5 over Utah Valley on Tuesday. The Wolverines cruised to a 15-6 victory in game one earlier in the day with the rubber match of the series on Wednesday night at 7pm.

UV jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two runs in the first and one more in the second. Eli Slesk had an RBI single in the first to score Tyler Garretson. Derrick Thomas then drove Scott Croshaw home with a sac-fly to left.

Dick Bargewell walked with one out in the second moved over to third after a stolen base and an errant throw by the catcher. He later scored on a wild pitch to push the UV lead to 3-0.

Southern Utah's bats then came alive in a big way. After Robbie Richards hit a solo shot in the third inning to get SUU on the board, the T-Birds got back-to-back home runs from Matthew Bezzant and Robert Sandstrom.

Bezzant's blast was a three-run shot and gave Southern Utah its first lead, 4-3 before Sandstrom made it 5-3.

The T-Birds added three more runs in the fifth, with two runs coming on another Bezzant home run.

In the top of the sixth, Derek Pena came to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a ball over the left-center wall, but after rounding second, Pena passed Bucky Aona in between second and third and was called out. Three runs scored on the play for SUU, but Pena's grand slam was wiped off the board. Nevertheless, the T-Birds had built an 11-3 lead heading to the bottom of the sixth.

Utah Valley pushed two runs across in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Kevin Arendse and a single to short by Keiki Albino.

Southern Utah added four more runs in the eighth and one in the ninth for the final tally.

Alec Reichle earned the win in his first start after throwing 7 1/3 innings and allowing three earned runs (five total) on eight hits.

Jory Jensen (1-1) took the loss for the Wolverines.

Pena finished the day with five hits and five runs batted in while Bezzant also drove in five.

Eli Slesk had two hits to lead the way for Utah Valley.