Mountain West Conference baseball may have some heightened title competition this summer.

The U baseball team continued its recent surge this weekend, taking both sides of a Friday doubleheader en route to a 3-1 series victory over in-state rival UVSC (10-24).

After coming from behind to take game one of the four-game set last Tuesday, the U bats continued to pour it on this weekend.

The Utes (16-13) piled on 30 runs in Friday’s double-dip, including a nine-home-run effort in an 18-5 victory in the opener. John Welsh and Erich Kemp belted two homers each in the victory, Tyler Kmetko drove in four runs and Ryan Khoury and Jay Brossman had four hits each as Utah put up its most dominant offensive effort of the season.

The offensive output was more than enough for Ute starter Josh Cooper, who allowed two runs over five innings of work and earned his third win of the year.

The Utes didn’t miss a beat in the nightcap, scoring five runs in the first inning to go on to a 12-6 victory. Brossman, a two-time all-MWC selection, went 5-for-6 with four RBI in a winning cause, helping to bail out a sub par effort from starting hurler Eric King, who was pulled after four lackluster innings.

The Wolverines finally got one back Saturday evening, snapping the U’s five-game winning streak with a 5-4 victory that went down to the wire. Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth tied the game at 4-4, but the Wolverines answered in the bottom half of the inning, as Adam Openshaw drove in what proved to be the game-winning run with an RBI single off Ute freshman Brad DeVore.

UVSC pitchers Kam Mickolio and Kyle Beecher limited the high-powered Utes to just six hits-just one for extra bases. But although the Utes fell shy of a clean sweep, they are still well ahead of their pace from last season. Through 29 games last season, the team was just 10-19.

The Utes host Southern Utah on Tuesday at Ute Field before heading back out on the road, where they will take on struggling MWC foe San Diego State next weekend.