Another weekend on the diamond has come and gone and as the dust settled, the same result seemed to creep in and show itself for Utah baseball.
Utah was in Palo Alto this weekend for a three-game series with Stanford, but left California with another series loss after dropping two of three against the Cardinal.
In game one, after holding a rather large lead, the Utes let the game slip away from them as they were beaten 10-6. Saturday night’s game was different in that the Cardinal took the lead, built upon that lead and never looked back as they cruised to an 8-1 victory. The final game of the series was the complete opposite, however, as the Utes rebounded to win 11-3.
“We had a really good bounce-back win [Sunday],” head coach Bill Kinneberg said of the Sunday finale.
Utah trailed in the first game by one run until the fourth inning, when the offense came to life and scored five runs to put the score at 5-1. After that, Stanford scored two runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth inning to retake the lead and secure its win.
Nolan Stouder pitched five innings and allowed four runs on nine hits. Fellow junior Bret Helton relieved him but was only on the mound for 2/3 innings after giving up four runs on three hits. Both Stouder and Helton finished with a strikeout apiece, while Helton earned the loss, dropping to 2-5 on the year.
Sophomore Hunter Rodriguez pitched 1/3 innings after Helton, and gave up one run on one hit. A pair of freshmen finished out the game as Tanner Thomas and Spencer Johnson pitched the final two innings.
Utah was led at the plate by freshman Wade Gulden, who went 3-for-4. Junior Cody Scaggari had an RBI after hitting 2-for-4, and sophomore Josh Rose drove in three runs, as the Utes finished with eight hits on the day.
Game two was another offensive struggle for the Utes. They trailed by five runs after two innings and were only able to muster up one run on the day, as Utah finished with just five hits.
Sophomore Max Schuman had the best day for the Utes at the plate by going 2-for-4.
Junior Dalton Carroll earned the loss after pitching five innings and allowing seven runs on five hits. He drops to 4-5 on the year, but did register two strikeouts.
The final game of the series was nothing like the first two, as Utah swung the bat really well and accounted for 16 hits.
“Most importantly, our offense scored 11 runs, and keeping pressure on them was the difference,” Kinneberg said. “It was a welcome site after playing really poorly yesterday.”
Junior’s Kody Davis and AJ Young both had outstanding games on offense, both going 3-for-3 at the plate. Young accounted for four RBI’s and Davis hit his second home run of the year. Other notable batters were Cole Taylor, who went 3-for-5 and had five RBI’s, and Smith, who gathered four hits.
Freshman Jayson Rose picked up the victory on the mound as he moves to 3-3 on the year. He pitched six innings and allowed three runs on eight hits. Senior Brock Duke recorded his third save on the year after pitching the final three innings and only allowing one hit. Rose finished with seven strikeouts while Duke ended with two.
“Jayson [Rose] and Brock [Duke] also both did a really nice job today,” Kinneberg said.
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