OREM — The Utah Valley State baseball team swept a Sunday doubleheader from Northern Colorado to set a school record for most wins in a season at the Division I level.
With the wins over the Bears, the Wolverines improved to 21-27 on the year and bested their previous school record of 19 victories in a Division I season.
Originally, UVSC traveled to Greeley, Colo., for two games apiece against Air Force and Northern Colorado. But after the Falcons beat the Wolverines 9-5 on Friday, the weather turned bad and all Saturday games were either canceled or postponed. Although Utah Valley never got to play its second game against Air Force, it was able to get in both of its games against host Northern Colorado in a doubleheader Sunday.
Although the pair of wins over the Bears ended with nearly identical final scores, UVSC traveled two very different paths to arrive at each. In the early game Sunday, the Wolverines trailed 6-5 heading into the ninth inning but rallied for three runs in the final frame to win 8-6. Eli Slesk singled to lead off the top of the ninth and later came around to score the tying run on Jace Brinkerhoff's single. With the count 0-2 and two runners on base, catcher Kevin Arendse blasted a ball to the wall in left-center that plated both base runners and made it 8-6 in favor of Utah Valley State.
The Wolverines played the role of rabbit in the nightcap, racing out to a 7-1 lead and scoring all of their runs in the first six frames. But when Northern Colorado netted a pair of runs in the home half of the seventh to pull to within 9-6, UVSC asked freshmen pitchers Ryan Chadwick and Craig Brimhall (Provo High) to hold off the Bears. The move worked, as Chadwick and Brimhall combined for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless work to close out the game.
Brimhall saved both of the Wolverine wins Sunday.
The week that was
TRACK AND FIELD: Wednesday at the Weber State Twilight Meet, UVSC was the only one of seven schools in attendance to fail to win a single event.
Competing without injured star sprinter Mariama Salifu, who only five days earlier had posted times at the BYU Robison Invitational in the women's 100- and 200-meter sprints that were faster than the winning times in the same events at the Weber Twilight, the Wolverines could only muster three second-place finishes. The trio of UVSC runners-up included Kari Snow-Tupou in the women's 100-meter dash, Ashley Timo in the women's long jump and male hammer thrower Gavin Shaw.
SOFTBALL: Scoring abounded Saturday as the Wolverines (23-28) and Idaho State split a softball doubleheader; UVSC won the first game 13-5 and the Bengals prevailed 11-8 in the finale. The two teams combined for 14 home runs, a figure due in no small part to the gusty 30 mph winds which blew out to left field for most of the afternoon.
Utah Valley pitcher Jackie Roberts threw a complete game in the first contest to earn the victory. Wolverines
Cari Hamilton and Cheryl McGraw combined to go 6-for-9 at the plate in the early game, and Heidi Boyer crushed her team-leading 11th home run of the season in the late contest.
On tap
TRACK AND FIELD: at the Independent Championships in Davis, Calif., all day Saturday and Sunday.
BASEBALL: at BYU, 6 p.m. Tuesday; at Arizona State, 6 p.m. Wednesday.