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Show UVU REVIEW SPORTS B1 COLUMNIST High hopes for Omaha By Alyssa Synakowski Assistant Sports Editor @synakowsk Sophomore Greyson Bogden swings in an at-bat against BYU. The Wolverines' win over the Cougars was the third in what has become a six-game streak. GAB! CAMBELU/UVU REVIEW Wolverines on a roll with six straight wins UVU completes three-game sweep of Chicago State By Warren McDade Staff Writer @warrenmcdadel7 Utah Valley University baseball stayed hot and got its sixth straight win over the weekend with a three-game road sweep of Western Athletic Conference foe Chicago State University. The series started off wet as Friday's game was postponed due to rain, which made for a Saturday doubleheader. And that didn't seem to bother the Wolverines (13-18, 6-3). They were led by stellar pitching from starters Andrew Freter and Ryan Evans. "Those two really did a great job today," head coach Eric Madsen said. "Andrew was excellent for seven innings and Ryan, with the way he pitched through our defensive miscues, was huge for us. It's also nice to see us get those timely two-out hits in big situations." In the first game, Utah Valley gained a 5-0 lead and held off the Cougars (9-17, 0-6) 5-4. Freter (2-4) went 7.1 innings, giving up only three runs on five hits, while striking out seven. Sean Moysh was strong on offense with three hits, as he hit a home run to right-center, his third this year, and drove in a run with a single in the fifth. In the sixth, Colby Croft singled and then scored after Kade Andrus tripled in the gap in right center. Andrus then scored on a sacrifice fly from Cam Zollinger. Chicago State would put one on the board in its half of the sixth, and then scored three times in the eighth to close the gap to one run. Chad Michaud closed the door in the ninth for his third save of the season. The second game saw CSU lead 2-0 in the third after a couple of errors, but Craig Brinkerhoff led off the fifth with a double and then scored on a base hit by Andrus. Andrus would score to tie the game at 2-2 on a two-out double from Greyson Bogden. Bogden gave the Wolverines another two-out hit in the seventh to put them ahead 3-2. Seth Rhineer sin- gled home two more runs, and Mark Krueger capped a string of six straight hits with a single that brought Rhineer home to make it 6-2. Beau Kailas would triple the next inning and was brought home by White to put UVU up 7-2. UVU won the finale 7-3 behind four scoreless innings from Devin Nelson, who picked up his second win of the week after beating BYU on April 1. Bogden broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth with a solo home run, his second on the year, and also his second straight go-ahead RBI for the Wolverines. UVU scored two more in the sixth, taking advantage of three walks and an error in the inning. Cam Zollinger had a two-out RBI single in the eighth and Krueger drove home his second run of the day with a sac-fly to cap the scoring for Utah Valley. Moysh and Brinkerhoff led UVU with two hits apiece. Chicago State struggled with runners in scoring position as they stranded 14 runners on base during the game. Utah Valley followed its third consecutive series win to return home for a threegame homestand. The Wolverines hosted Texas-Pan American, which was coming off a mid-week game. UTPA (13-21) took two of three from Grand Canyon and was looking to end the Wolverines' win streak. The series began Friday, April 11 at 6 p.m. MDT at Brent Brown Ballpark. WAC affiliation paying dividends for UVU Over nine months into their Western Athletic Conference membership, the Wolverines have taken advantage of the perks as of their new league By Kyle Spencer Sports Editor @kyledspencer PHOTO COURTESY OF UVU ATHLETICS Senior Keawe Enos hoists the WAC regular-season championship trophy after UVU beat Bakersfield March 7. Sometimes it's hard to imagine what motivated 8,063 fans to pack into the then-one-year-old McKay Events Center in January 1997 for a National Junior College Athletic Association basketball game. Then again, Utah Valley State College students had the opportunity to experience something relatively new — a state-of-the-art home venue where they could admire the efforts of their peers — and they set a NJCAA singlegame attendance record doing so. Fast forward more than 17 years later, and UVU not only competes in NCAA Division I but in the Western Athletic Conference. Most recently, because they won the WAC regularseason title, the Wolverine men's basketball team participated in the National Invitation Tournament. Although UVU was bounced in the first round, the university will receive tournament revenue equivalent to one share unit "from ticket sales, sales of radio and/or television broadcast rights, sale of Internet rights, and from any other source connected with the tournament," according to the NIT Team Manual. Besides the monetary gain, the Wolverines' game against the University of California Berkeley was their second broadcast on ESPN3. Not only has the WAC provided the stage for UVU to qualify for national events and increase financial gain from athletics, but it is also helping develop its overall exposure. ESPN, along with essentially every national media outlet consumed by sports, retransmitted footage of the UVU-New Mexico State brawl — a scene not ideal for shaping the public's knowledge concerning an institution, however, informative in its own right, nonetheless—and it was because the Wolverines compete in the WAC that the possibility was afforded. Just six years ago, a landmark transition welcomed UVU to the Great West Conference. The Wolverines responded by winning all four of the GWC Commissioner's Cups, an award given for the best performance in conference-sponsored sports. Last fall, UVU men's cross-country took home the WAC B2 Springtime has rolled in with bats swinging for the Utah Valley baseball team averaging nearly five runs per game. Western Athletic Conference play has begun, so UVU fans can finally go to see their college team play, because to this point they have played 25 of their first 31 games away from home. In April, spectators can see the Wolverines play at home against the likes of Texas-Pan American, Utah, Northern Colorado and Utah County foe BYU. The Wolverines and BYU have already faced off this season with UVU taking the win. If you are not excited to watch these games, you should be. College athletics are beautiful to watch, and the intensity is often unmatched in professional sports. Of course, it is fun to watch the Chicago Cubs compete in Wrigley Field or the NBA Pistons play in The Palace but the actual play is better in college. I love the passion that the student-athletes play with. To me, professional sports are boring to watch because there is no excitement in their play when the athletes are only there for the money and endorsements. College baseball is especially exciting to watch as the guys go out each season, playing at the TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha for their final destination. Each year the teams that win the Super Regionals go on to play in the doubleelimination College World Series in Omaha, Neb. To go watch the CWS teams play and visit the old Rosenblatt Stadium is quite possibly the only reason to ever go to Omaha. The Wolverines were picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll decided by WAC coaches, but they're currently ranked second in the league after three series played. The top eight out of ten teams in WAC standings are taken to the conference tournament to be played in Arizona, meaning the currently ranked second Wolverines have good odds at winning their way into the NCAA tournament if they can make it past Sacramento State (2012, 9-0 WAC). UVU has averaged between 600 and 1000 fans coming out to watch baseball over the past four seasons at the Brent Brown Ballpark. But the environment of a baseball game is so much more than the stats behind wins and losses. A game is fun because the fans can enjoy a warm, breezy day while watching players perform with drive and passion. Out of 31,264 college baseball players, an average 806 are drafted every year, with the majority of the players not making it out of Triple-A ball. College ball is fun to watch because these players know they are probably not making it to the MLB, and so they play each game because they love everything from the freshly mowed grass to the sound of the bat connecting with the ball. Watch UVU baseball as the season gets into full swing with eyes ahead, dreaming of Omaha. |