Wolverines suffer early-season woes

The Utah Valley Wolverines’ baseball team had their first home stand of the season, winning three and losing three against Northern Colorado and St. John’s.

Utah Valley then flew to Spokane, Washington to face Gonzaga in a four-game series in which they were swept.

In the first home games at Utah Valley, the Wolverines went up against Northern Colorado for a four-game series, winning three out of four.

In the first two games, the Wolverines played exceptionally well, sweeping a double-header 9-4 and 14-7. Utah Valley had no problems at the plate, and was led by Junior Jace Binkerhoff, who went 6-for-8 in the two games with four runs, four RBI and his first home run of the season.

The Wolverines would split the next two versus Northern Colorado losing 10-7 and winning 19-14. In the loss, the Wolverines were unable to get their pitching on the right track, giving up three runs in the first inning and giving up seven walks in the game.

In the 19-14 win, true freshman Riley White became the first Wolverine in history to hit for the cycle. He also drove in three runs and earned Great West Player of the Week honors. In the fifth inning, White and Sophomore Jake Rickenbach hit back-to-back home runs.

St. John’s University then visited Utah Valley. The first game was postponed due to an unexpected snowstorm, but they would drop both in a double-header the next day, 14-4 and 10-0.

In the first game, the Wolverines simply could not get anything started and St. John’s jumped out to an unassailable 14-0 lead, to which Utah Valley just could not catch up.

The next game, the Wolverines saw more of the same. Utah Valley only managed six hits in the game and committed five errors, which yielded three runs.

In the four-game series against Gonzaga, nothing seemed to go right for the Wolverines. Utah Valley lost all four of their games, 3-8, 5-10, 2-4 and 6-9.

As of March 18, the Wolverines are 5-11 on the season and the road does not get any easier, facing Oregon State, BYU and Utah. The next time the Wolverines are at home will be April 3 against Air Force.