Utes Defeat Utah Valley, 11-8

Tuesday, April 28

Orem, Utah

6:00 PM

University of Utah

16-24

Utah Valley

13-29

Utah

Utah Valley

4/28/2009 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 28, 2009

Box Score

OREM, Utah - Led by a pair of home runs from Cooper Blanc, the Utah baseball team defeated Utah Valley, 11-8, on Tuesday in a non-conference matchup.

Down 5-4 in the fifth inning, Blanc hit his first home run of the day, a two-out, two-run shot to put the Utes on top, 6-4. The Utes increased their lead in the top of the sixth, scoring three runs to take a 9-4 lead. With the bases loaded for C.J. Cron, he singled down the left field line to send two runners across the plate to lead Utah in the inning. Devin Walker also had a deep sacrifice fly in the inning to score Nick Kuroczko.

Utah Valley took advantage of a pair of errors in the bottom of the sixth inning to send two runs across the plate to cut the Ute lead to 9-7. Each team scored in the seventh inning, as Blanc hit his second home run in the top of the inning before Chris Benson hit an RBI double in the bottom of the inning for Utah Valley.

Cron hit his seventh home run of the year in the ninth inning over the left field fence.

Cron was 3-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Blanc went 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored.

Utah starter Bryn Card went 3.1 innings, allowing four earned runs and striking out four. Bennett Askew picked up his first win of the year after entering in the fourth inning and Stephen Streich earned his first save of the season, pitching the ninth inning. Tyler Andersen, Robert Chimpky and Greg Krause also pitched for the Utes.

"We swung the bats really well," head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "It's nice to have Cooper back and C.J. and Devin Walker are both swinging the bats well. It was a good team effort. We threw everyone in our bullpen and survived our last Tuesday game.

"This was an important win. We have won two in a row and we need to be on a roll and keep it going into Air Force."

The Utes took a 2-0 lead in the first inning with Corey Shimada leading off the game with a walk before scoring when Tyler Yagi doubled down the left field line on a ball that landed just fair. Yagi moved to third after the pitcher threw the ball into center field on a failed pickoff attempt before scoring on Cron's ground out.

Utah added a run in the top of the second with Michael Beltran scoring Austin Jones with a single up the middle.

Utah Valley got on the board in the bottom of the second, taking advantage of an error with two runners on to send two across the plate. After the Utes put a run up in the top of the third on a pair of doubles from Cron and Walker, UVU took a 5-4 lead with three runs in the bottom of the third. Billy Burgess hit a two-run home run during the inning for the Wolverines.

The Utes return to Mountain West Conference play this weekend against Air Force, starting on Friday, May 1. The series will be important to determining the final team going to the conference tournament.