Wolverine Bats No Match for Matador Pitching

Raven K’s 16 Wolverine Hitters in Win

Kyle McDonald, Sports Writer, @kylesportsbias

On Saturday afternoon February 14, 2015, Cal State Northridge pitcher Rayne Raven gave his team a nice Valentine’s Day present.  Raven struck out 16 UVU hitters and only allowed four hits in seven innings of work to lead the Matadors to the 6-0 win over the Wolverines.  Raven struck out the side in the first, fourth, and fifth innings in his first start after transferring from Western Nevada.

Sophomore Patrick Wolfe took the mound for UVU and tossed six solid innings, allowing two earned runs while striking out six Matador hitters in the loss.  Utah Valley was only able to muster seven hits on the day and two of the came by Provo native Seth Rhineer.  Freshman Kody Moon of Burley, Idaho collected the first hit of his career in a pinch-hit role in the ninth inning.

The third inning was trouble for UVU.  The first three Matador hitters would reach base via walk, single, and bunt single.  They would score three runs in the inning on a throwing error, sacrifice fly, and an infield single.  The Matadors added a run in the seventh on a Chester Pak run-scoring double and then added on two more runs in the bottom of the eighth to make the final score 6-0.

It was a record setting day for the Wolverines in a negative way.  Raven’s 16 strikeouts is the most for a single pitcher against UVU in its NCAA Division I era.  Overall, the Wolverines struck out 17 times which is a school record for a UVU team.

UVU will look to bounce back on Sunday morning as they face Gonzaga to finish up a four game weekend.  The Bulldogs beat the Wolverines 3-2 in the season opener for both teams on Friday afternoon.