After a rough go in its opening series of the year, the Utah baseball team got back on track in a return to California this weekend.
Utah left Bakersfield with three wins and improved its record to 4-4 on the season, with all four games ending in a scoring-fest for the Utes, as they scored a combined 39 runs in the three days of play.
Bryn Card recorded the best performance for the Utes in the final game of the series. Card allowed two hits and a run in seven innings in Utah’s 7-3 win against CSUB. C.J. Cron got the Utes going right away with a solo home run in the first inning. Cooper Blanc gave Card some insurance with a two-run jack in the second, giving the Utes a 3-0 lead.
Two more runs in the fourth off of three hits and a run in the sixth gave Utah a 7-0 lead. Blanc finished the game with three hits and two RBIs on 3-for-4 hitting.
After losing his first contest of the year against Loyola Marymount on Friday night, starter Brian Budrow proved that the No. 1 position is where he belongs.
Budrow allowed CSUB to score a single run off of eight hits in seven innings. He found his stride, pitching a lot of short innings and picking up six strikeouts. Tyler Andersen came in to close out the game in the final two innings, giving the Utes the 12-1 victory.
Corey Shimada, Austin Jones and Rick Cornu all had home runs against the Roadrunners but Cornu was the stud of the game going 3-for-4 at the plate and knocking in five RBIs.
“We did a nice job in the early innings getting some big two-out hits and putting some runs on the board,” said head coach Bill Kinneberg. “Rick Cornu had some key hits for us and his three-run homer kind of put it away for us.”
Utah and CSUB split a doubleheader Saturday with both games, finishing with a score of 10-8.
In the first game, the Utes held a 7-5 lead heading into the eighth inning. The Runners rallied, scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning, giving them a 10-7 lead with the final inning still to come.
Utah did its best to fight back with a home run by Cornu, singles by Shimada and Cron and a Nick Kuroczko walk to load the bases with only one out. The Utes couldn’t get the hit with runners in scoring position and dropped the contest, giving Bennett Askew the loss after 3.1 innings of work.
Game two was another back-and-forth contest that was decided in the later innings. Utah took a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh but allowed the Runners to rally. They scored five runs in the inning and took an 8-7 lead with two innings to play.
Jones tied the game in the top of the eighth with an RBI single to score Shimada. No more runs would be scored in the eighth by either team, but in the ninth, the first three batters would get on base. Cornu and Shimada would then be walked, sending the game-winning runs across home plate.
Jones went 3-for-3 with two RBIs. Cornu yet again stepped up driving in two RBIs on 3-of-5 hitting. Cron had two RBIs and Shimada scored three runs for Utah.
“In both games, we had leads and gave them up late in the game under relief pitching,” Kinneberg said. “We didn’t close the doors in both games and gave up several run leads to put us into that situation. Playing a doubleheader is tough no matter who you are playing. It’s a long day and I am proud of the way we won in the ninth inning in the second ball game.”