Loss to cross-town rival

Utah Valley took the short drive up the road to Provo last Tuesday evening to play cross-town rival BYU, ultimately falling to the Cougars 11-3.

The Cougars scored one run in the bottom of the first to get things started, giving them the first lead.

Utah Valley answered back in the top of the fourth, bringing in three runs off of two hits, putting them up 3-1 over the Cougars.

Junior outfielder Kirk Doxey and sophomore infielder Cole McWhorter were both hit by a wild pitch early in the inning, loading up first and second base before senior Chris Benson hit a triple to left center, bringing both of them in.
Junior Billy Burgess then hit a grounder out to short-stop, bringing in Benson. Those were the last points the Wolverines got on the board before the Cougars took over the game.

“We had opportunities to really handle and control a lot of stuff if we do things right,” said Coach Eric Madsen. “I really felt like we had opportunities throughout that game to change the momentum and to handle some things that they were trying to do and we didn’t really react the right way to it. It’s tough; that’s a good team.”

BYU went on to score three runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and three each in the seventh and eighth innings.

Despite the loss, Madsen is still confident in his roster as they begin Great West Conference play.

“I really think that it’s still a good club,” said Madsen. “We’ve shown that we’re capable of swinging the bat; I’d just like to see more consistency out of the offense and more consistency out of the pitching. The pitching’s been really good, but then they’ve had their times when they’ve been really bad and I just think that’s what we need to change. They just need to be consistent all the time. If we do that, we’re going to be pretty good.”

The Wolverines sat on a two-game loosing streak going in to last weekend’s games against conference opponent NJIT in Newark, New Jersey.

Utah Valley will be back in action at home this week as Utah comes to town on Tuesday to face the Wolverines at Brent Brown Ballpark at 6:00 p.m.

The Wolverines will then not see home action until April 21 when they begin their 10-game home stand. Utah Valley will face two conference opponents, Chicago State and NJIT, and two non-conference opponents, Utah and Seattle University, during those 10 games before heading back out on the road.