Baseball Tallies Road Win at SUU

Thursday, March 6

Cedar City, Utah

1:00 PM

University of Utah

1-7

Southern Utah

5-2

University of Utah

Southern Utah

3/6/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 6, 2008

Box Score

CEDAR CITY, Utah - The University of Utah baseball team went toe-to-toe with Southern Utah this afternoon, and the Utes rallied for their first win of the season, 13-10.

Utah saw four of its players go for four hits today, and the team had eight extra-base knocks as it upped its season tally to 1-7. The Thunderbirds fall to 5-2 on the season.

"It was 13-6 heading into the bottom of the ninth, so I wasn't happy that we gave up four runs that late in the game," said head coach Bill Kinneberg. "The wind was blowing out, and the grass was short, so I knew going into today that there were going to be some runs scored.

"It wasn't the pitchers' fault this afternoon, at all. We didn't play very well, defensively, and I thought our pitchers did a good job bailing out our defense on many occasions.

"Offensively, I thought we swung the bats very well today. We hit the ball hard, and we had a lot of extra-base hits. That was a big positive for us today."

Cody Guymon, Dustin Hennis and Austin Jones all had four hits on the day. Guymon and Hennis went 4-for-5 at the plate while Jones hit 4-for-6. Jones led all players in plating four RBI. Fred Ferguson only had one base knock today, but it was an RBI double to center field in the eighth inning. It scored Cooper Blanc, and turned out to be the game-winning run.

Utah trailed 5-4 after the fifth inning, but it finally took control of the game in the sixth. Corey Shimada led the inning off with a walk, and Guymon was hit by a pitch. A careless throw by SUU catcher Cameron Nelson allowed the two to advance to second and third. Then, Jesse Shriner plated one of his three RBI on a sac fly to left, scoring Shimada. Two batters later, Jones homered to make it 7-5.

SUU countered in the bottom of the sixth with one run, but Utah got what it needed with a four-run eighth inning.

Shimada walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Shimada advanced to third on Guymon's single, and the two base runners would score on Shirner's two-run triple. Blanc drew a walk, setting up the double steal. Blanc jumped out to steal second, allowing Shriner to steal home, making 10-5. Blanc would score the final run of the frame when Hennis doubled to right.

A pair of RBI doubles, one by Guymon and one by Hennis, scored two insurance runs in the ninth. It was more than Utah needed, despite SUU's four-run outburst in the bottom of the ninth.

Stephen Fife got the start on the mound, and he gets the win. He is now 1-1 on the season as he went 5.1 innings allowing nine hits and fanning five batters. He let six runs score, but only two of them were earned.

SUU's Dustin Wittwer (2-1) is saddled with the loss.

The same two teams will battle at Thunderbird Park tomorrow. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.