The Utes drew first blood Tuesday night versus Utah Valley University, but the Wolverines bit back with ferocity. UVU plated six runs in the bottom of the first inning after Utah had brought in only one.
Despite the first inning onslaught from the Wolverines, the Utes stayed resilient. They kept stringing hits together and slowly climbed back into the game by taking advantage of everything UVU gave them. Utah eventually notched its second win over Utah Valley this season by a score of 7-6.
“After a disastrous first inning, our whole team, they hung in there and they battled through it,” Utes head coach Bill Kinneberg said.” In the end they won the last three innings and that’s what we preach.”
After getting its bell rung early, Utah woke up. The Utes managed to blank the Wolverines the rest of the night and began chipping away at the five-run deficit.
Making his second start of the season, Trey Nielsen struggled from the mound. After throwing 55 pitches to record only four outs, he was relieved of pitching duties by Luke West, who turned things around for Utah en route to his third win of the season.
“He was pounding the strike zone…and striking people out,” Kinnberg said of West. “He was terrific tonight.”
West managed to crank out serious heat on a wintry night in Happy Valley. He dominated the UVU lineup by striking out eight, allowing just one hit and no runs in six innings of work. West said it was his best outing since high school.
“It was pretty nice to see that number up there,” West said of his strikeout tally. “After I came in we kept battling on the offensive side. That’s all it took-for me to put up zeroes and the offense to keep battling.”
While West did his part to keep the Wolverines off the board, the Utah lineup started warming up. In the end, the Utes won the battle of the bats, 14 hits to nine. They scored once each in the third, sixth and seventh innings to bring the score to 4-6 UVU going into the eighth.
In the eighth, Braden Anderson ripped a two-out triple to bring home two runs and knot the contest up at six. Tyler Relf batted next and got Anderson home on a drag bunt that UVU pitcher Devin Nelson couldn’t handle. Anderson’s score wound up being the winning run.
“He read the third baseman. That was an excellent decision on his part,” Kinneberg said. “Excellent execution of a drag bunt. They opened the door for us and he took it.”
Nick Green came in to relieve West in the eighth with one out and retired the Wolverines’ final five batters to record the save. Two of the outs came via strikeout.
The Utes will return home for a three game series versus USC starting Friday at Spring Mobile Ballpark.