Utah Baseball Falls to UVSC, 6-4

Tuesday, May 8

Orem, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

21-26

Utah Valley State

22-27

University of Utah

Utah Valley State

5/8/2007 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 8, 2007

Box Score

OREM, Utah - For the third straight time at Wolverine Baseball Stadium, Utah Valley State's Marcus Moore shut down the University of Utah baseball team Tuesday night. Moore tossed a 149-pitch complete game, leading the Wolverines to a 6-4 win over the Utes.

Second baseman Corey Shimada got things started well for Utah (21-26), hitting a solo home run in the top of the first inning. But the Utes' 1-0 lead was short-lived. In the bottom of the frame, Utah Valley's Austin Heaps hit a two-run home run to deep center field off Ute starter Brad DeVore to put the Wolverines up 2-1.

UVSC (22-27) tallied a single run in the bottom of the third to go on top 3-1. Utah got that run back in the top of the fifth. Shimada led off the inning with his nation-leading 10th triple and later scored on a single off the bat of left fielder Dustin Hennis to make it 3-2.

But Utah Valley got all the offense it would need in the bottom half of the fifth. The Wolverines got an RBI single from Eli Slesk. One batter later, a two-run home run to center field off the bat of Derrick Thomas gave UVSC a 6-2 lead and knocked Ute reliever Kerr Foster out of the contest.

Utah added a single tally in the sixth, when shortstop Mike Mitchell and center fielder Nate Burnham ripped back-to-back, one-out doubles. But with two runners on and one out, the Utes couldn't push any more runs across the plate. Another single run in the eighth on a two-out, RBI single from Jay Brossman accounted for the final run.

Utah was unable to get enough clutch hits against Moore. The Utes left two or more runners on base in five different innings and stranded 12 runners in the contest.

Moore moved to 6-3 on the season and picked up his third victory against Utah. He struck out 13 and walked five. Utah right fielder John Welsh (4), Hennis (3) and designated hitter T.J. Wise (3) accounted for 10 of Moore's 13 punchouts. DeVore (1-2) suffered the loss.

Heaps was 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs and Thomas was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs scored to pace the UVSC offense. Shimada led Utah - which out-hit UVSC 9-8 - with a 2-for-3 performance. He scored twice and drove in one run. Burnham was 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI for the Utes. Shimada and Brossman both extended their hitting streaks to 17 games.

Utah and UVSC finish the season series knotted up at 3-3. Both teams won all three of their home contests. The Utes are in action again this weekend, when they travel to Colorado Springs, Colo. for a three-game Mountain West Conference series with Air Force.

-UU-