After Utah’s loss to Washington State, Corey Shimada said that it would take a collective effort for the Utes to pick up a win. That’s exactly what the U baseball team did Wednesday night.
In Utah’s second and final game against the Cougars (19-17), the Utes (14-22) snapped a 10-game losing streak with a 9-1 win over WSU. With three more non-conference games this week, now is the time to settle into a groove.
“It was good for us to break through and get the monkey off our back,” said head coach Bill Kinneberg. “It’s kind of funny what happens in the game of baseball8212;we got all the breaks today, we got all the calls, but I told the guys we make our own luck.”
Bryn Card got his seventh start of the season and was on fire for five innings for the U. The Cougars were only able to get a run and five hits off of Card, who left the game with a season-high seven strikeouts.
“It was clutch, we needed it, we really did,” Zach Jones said.
As Shimada said, it would take a good effort from the whole team to get a win, and the Utes finally banded together.
The offense gave Card run support early. With one out in the second inning, Michael Beltran and Jones started a rally with a pair of singles. Shimada dribbled a grounder to third, and though he was thrown out at first, it advanced the runners. With two outs, Tyler Yagi stepped up and hit a single, which pushed in Beltran from third, tying the game 1-1.
Nick Kuroczko, who has been hot as of late with his team-leading .349 batting average, knocked a two-RBI double down the right field line, giving Utah the 3-1 edge.
“Kuroczko’s been carrying us through this whole time, so it was time for the whole team to pick it up,” Card said.
The biggest inning for the Utes, which virtually sealed the game, was in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs on the board, they started to rally.
Kuroczko was yet again in the middle of a run scoring play, but this time it wasn’t off of a good hit. With two men on, he hit a grounder to the shortstop and Tommy Richards made a bad throw to first. As the first baseman was scrambling for the ball, Jones rounded third and headed for home. Jones beat out a controversial play at the plate, giving the Utes a 5-1 lead.
From then on, the other four runs, including a two-RBI single up the middle for C.J. Cron, were all unearned. Utah added a hit and a walk to load the bases, from which Gavin Green took advantage with a single that scored to unearned runs. Utah had a 9-1 lead heading into the final third of the game and put on cruise control.
“We got out of situations that we haven’t been getting out of the past two weeks,” Kinneberg said. “Two outs, two strikes, bases loaded, we got the out. Those are the things, you got to make the play, you got to make the pitch and you got to make that base hit.”
The bullpen was the other aspect of the game that played well for the Utes. Greg Krause came in for Card after he was struggling to make outs in the fifth and beginning of the sixth. Krause pitched two innings, and gave up two hits, no runs and had three strikeouts. Stephen Streich came in for Krause in the eighth and was stellar8212;only giving up one hit.
Devin Walker led Utah at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run, and was only a triple shy of the cycle.
Utah takes on UC Irvine tonight. UCI is ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Insider Polls.
Tyler CobbBryn Card pitched 5 innings, allowing one earned run for the Utes in their 9-1 defeat of Washington State on Wednesday night.