Utah’s offense capitalized on another stellar pitching performance from Brock Duke for a 6-1 victory Friday at the Dairy Queen Classic in Minneapolis, Minn. That victory over Northern Illinois was the only win the Utes would claim during the weekend as they dropped games to Minnesota and Dartmouth.
On Friday, Cody Scaggari got things going for Utah as he hit his first career home run over the left-field fence in the first inning. Dallas Carroll crossed the plate in the fifth on a failed pickoff attempt after leading off the inning with a double.
“We grinded it out again today,” said Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg. “We didn’t play as clean a game as we have been, but we did enough to win … I don’t think we were as sharp as we have been.”
Even if the Utes as a team didn’t play their A game, Duke was the exception. He picked up his second win of the season after pitching six innings with five strikeouts. Duke only allowed one unearned run on five hits.
Northern Illinois’ only run came in the fifth inning off of two walks and an error. The Utes continued to convert on offense as they scored one run in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth to seal the win.
Utah wasn’t able to get the same momentum going for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday’s 4-1 loss came at the hands of Ben Meyer, Minnesota’s man on the mound who silenced Utah’s bats. Meyer allowed only one run on three hits with five strikeouts throughout eight innings.
“Their pitcher did a nice job tonight,” Kinneberg said. “They got a lot of quick outs, and he limited us to very few opportunities.”
Utah’s lone unearned run came in the sixth inning. Utilizing his speed and heads-up play, Braden Anderson reached base with a single then scored. He crossed the plate on two errors after a failed pickoff attempt.
On Sunday, Utah only put two more runs on the board, dropping the final game of the tournament 5-2 to Dartmouth.
Dartmouth drew first blood in the second with three singles and a run, but the Utes bounced back in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead.
That would be the end of Utah’s scoring for the day as Dartmouth crossed the plate in the sixth by stringing together a double and a single to tie the game. Then in the top of the seventh, they took the lead and never looked back. Dartmouth had three hits and took advantage of a Ute error to build the 5-2 lead.
Utah used four pitchers in the loss. Joe Pond went five and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs on nine hits. Chase Rezac surrendered three runs on three hits over two-thirds of an inning, picking up the loss. The Utes turned to Mitch Watrous and Dalton Carroll for late inning relief and they rendered Dartmouth scoreless down the home stretch, but Utah lacked offensive production late.
“We didn’t swing the bats very well,” Kinneberg said. “We made some key mistakes on defense that hurt us, but we lost to a good ball club.”
The Utes will continue on the road this weekend with a four-game series against Saint Mary’s, beginning Friday evening.