SALT LAKE CITY — Arizona State broke a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning en route to a 9-6 win over the Utah baseball team on Sunday afternoon to close out the three-game series.
ASU loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning after a pair of hits and an intentional walk before scoring on a hard-hit ground out to take a 7-6 lead. The Utes couldn't take advantage of two walks and a hit batter in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game, stranding two on base in the inning.
The Sun Devils added two insurance runs in the ninth inning with the help of two singles and two wild pitches, and Utah couldn't put anything together in the bottom of the ninth.
Cory Hunt and Wyler Smith each had two hits to lead Utah at the plate. Braden Anderson went 1-for-1, but reached base in all four plate appearances, walking twice and getting hit by a pitch. He had two stolen bases.
Utah starter Tanner Banks pitched 4 1?3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits with four strikeouts. Joe Pond threw 3 1?3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out three. He earned the loss and falls to 2-5 on the year. Luke West pitched 1 1?3 innings.
UTAH VALLEY 15, CHICAGO STATE 3: At Orem, Utah Valley University scored in every inning in taking care of Chicago State and completing a four-game sweep of the Great West Conference series on Sunday at Brent Brown Ballpark. The game ended in seven innings due to the 10-run rule.
The Wolverines (18-21, 9-3) got contributions throughout the lineup and were led by three hits, including two doubles, from Colby Croft. Three other players had multi-hit days and five players drove in more than one run led by Kai Hatch's three RBIs.
Stone Ramsey and Riley White each had two hits and two batted in with White also scoring four runs. Ramsey, Taylor Berg, Willie Pratt and Jordy Hart each scored two times apiece.
Starting pitcher Danny Beddes picked up his first career win, lasting into the sixth and allowing one earned run (three total) on just four hits while striking out five.
SOFTBALL
STANFORD 9, UTAH 1: At Stanford, Calif., The University of Utah softball team dropped a 9-1 decision in five innings to No. 15 Stanford on Sunday in the finale of its Pac-12 Conference series at Smith Family Stadium.
Utah (23-27-1, 6-15 Pac-12) received back-to-back hits in the fifth inning by sophomore right fielder Marissa Mendenhall and freshman third baseman Kristen Stewart, who both hit one-out singles to the left side of the Stanford defense.
UTAH VALLEY 5, 4 SANTA CLARA 0, 1 At Orem, Pitchers Tiffany Mills and Josi Summers each went the distance and allowed just one combined run as Utah Valley University took both games of a Pacific Coast Softball Conference doubleheader from Santa Clara University. UVU won 5-0 in game one before taking a 4-1 victory in the encore.
The wins gave the Wolverines (31-17, 13-7) a 4-0 series sweep of the Broncos (6-43, 3-17). It was the first PCSC sweep of the season for UVU and pushed its win total to 30 for the second consecutive season.
"Our pitchers were great all weekend," said head coach Rachel Hartgrove. "Tiffany got the shutout and Josi had one rough inning but really settled in from there. I would have liked to see a little more run production, but our offense did what it needed to do to back up our pitching."