Baseball: Wolverines slug their way to win over ‘Runners

OREM  — Many teams would panic after falling behind by four runs in the first inning of a baseball game. Not the 2016 version of the UVU baseball team. The Wolverines scored four runs in the bottom of the first and tacked on four more in the bottom of the third to run away from the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners and earn an 11-5 win over the defending WAC Tournament champions on Saturday night at Brent Brown Ballpark.

With the win, UVU improves to 24-18 overall and 10-7 in the WAC, two games behind Sacramento State for third place in the conference. CSUB drops to 7-18 overall and 4-12 in the WAC.

UVU starter Danny Beddes struggled in the early going as he gave up four runs on two hits and three walks. The opening frame also included some mental errors by the Wolverines. Instead of throwing to first to get the sure out on a ground ball hit right back at him by Dustin Frailey, Beddes tried to get CSUB leadoff hitter Christian Deaton at second base but Deaton got back to the base safely. Instead of having two outs and one runner on, CSUB had two runners on and one out. Deaton scored the first run of the game on a two-out single by Ryan Grotjohn. Frailey then scored the second run when he stole home. The seventh batter in the CSUB lineup, Nick Vehlewald, then drove home two runs with a two-out single to down the right field line to make it 4-0 after the top half of the first inning.

“We got to get off to a better start,” UVU head coach Eric Madsen said. “We blew two plays, to me, to keep it to two runs instead of four. Actually, they only get one if we run it the right way so, disappointing to see us come out that way but I’ll give a lot of credit to our guys for getting back after it and finding out a way to come back and answer that first inning was giant I thought.”

UVU did find a way to come back and it started when Wolverine catcher Zac Willis drew a one-out walk. Shortstop Greyson Bogden, who went 3-4 on Friday night, picked up another hit as he singled to left. Willis then scored on a Mark Krueger single to right-center field to cut the deficit to three. Craig Brinkerhoff then hit a single off the end of his bat into right field that scored Bogden. Krueger, who was hustling on the whole play, scored when the right fielder threw the ball over the third baseman’s head trying to throw him out at third. Brinkerhoff advanced all the way to third on the play, on his single that went about ten feet into the outfield. He scored one batter later and tied the game when Spencer Gothberg hit a sacrifice fly down the right field line.

From that point on, it was all UVU both offensively and defensively. Beddes came out strong over the next three innings and held the ‘Runners scoreless, while the UVU offense put up four runs in the bottom of the third on three straight hits and a sacrifice fly.

Spencer Gothberg got things going with an RBI double with one out that scored Mark Krueger. Designated hitter Stone Ramsey followed that with an RBI single to score Craig Brinkerhoff and make it 6-4. Justin Erlandson then singled to score Gothberg and Jordan Schlehuber capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Ramsey to make it 8-4 after three innings.

Logan Hold came on in relief of Beddes in the top of the sixth inning and as good relievers do, he completely shut down the ‘Runners offense. He allowed two hits, struck out one and walked one in 4.0 innings of relief to pick up his first save of the season.

“The thing with Logan is he just threw strikes,” Madsen said. “He got the ball where it needed to be and that’s pitching. I thought he did a good job. He came in, he had one sloppy walk but made up for it right away. I was really impressed with Logan.”

Danny Beddes improved to 5-3 on the season and showed his coach his toughness in overcoming a rough first inning.

“You got to give a guy a lot of credit,” Madsen said. “When it doesn’t go his way and obviously he didn’t pitch as well as he has lately, but found a way to grind through it and give us five innings, which is what you hope for…he put us in a good position.”

UVU will look to sweep a series for the first time in 2016 when they face off in the rubber match against Bakersfield on Sunday at noon MST at Brent Brown Ballpark.