OREM, Utah – Tarleton State Baseball (17-24, 5-7 WAC) took the series finale against the Utah Valley Wolverines (25-15, 10-5 WAC) on Saturday afternoon, clinching the series win with a 12-6 victory in game three.
Both teams registered double-digit hits for the second game in a row. The Purple and White registered 15 hits opposed to the Wolverines’ 13. Tarleton State’s bullpen had seven strikeouts while Utah Valley posted eight.
Jake Burcham (3-4) received the win on Saturday afternoon, pitching five innings of work and only allowing two earned runs. Burcham tallied three strikeouts, bringing his season total to 33.
The Wolverines got on the board first thanks to a lead-off single from Luke Iverson, who was later drove in via an RBI groundout from Mason Strong. The Texans responded immediately in the second inning with a three-run home run from Tyson Drake that gave them a 3-1 advantage. This marked Drake’s 11th home run of the season, a team high. The senior also has a team-high 39 RBIs following Saturday’s contest.
Utah Valley cut the lead to one run off an RBI double from DJ Massey in the bottom of the second. After a scoreless third frame, Carson Lorch blasted a no-doubter to left field, a solo home run that put the lead back to two. This marked Lorch’sfirst home run as a Tarleton State Texan and also extended the junior’s hit streak to eight games, the longest active streak among the squad.
The Wolverines tacked on a run to make the ballgame 4-3 heading into the top of the sixth stanza. The Purple and White then orchestrated their best inning of the weekend, putting up six runs off five hits. Jaime Perez set the tone with a lead-off home run, giving him his third of the year. This was followed by a single from Slade McCloud who then stole second base. Sergio Guerra walked and McCloud advanced to third off a wild pitch from the Wolverines. Drake took advantage of this, blasting an RBI double off the wall that scored McCloud and put Guerra on third.
Ike Shirey, who was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List earlier this week, launched a base-clearing double that drove in Drake and Guerra. Shirey finished the weekend with six hits, tallying multiple hits in all three games against the Wolverines. After Shirey made the game 8-3, Rayner Heinrich kept the scoring spurt going with an RBI single that scored Shirey. The six-run inning was capped off by a fielding error from Utah Valley, giving Tarleton State a 10-3 advantage heading into the bottom of the frame.
Burcham was relieved of his duties by Karsen Davis, who pitched a scoreless sixth stanza to keep the momentum in favor of the Texans. McCloud hit a lead-off home run in the seventh inning to give Tarleton State their fourth home run of the game. This marked McCloud’s 20th extra-base hit of his senior campaign.
Davis held Utah Valley scoreless in the bottom of the seventh, putting away two batters via looking strikeouts. The Wolverines attempted to climb back during the eighth inning, putting up three runs off three hits and three walks.
Guerra hit a one-out double for the Texans in the top of the ninth stanza and was eventually drove in by Shirey for his third RBI of the afternoon. Andrew Hardin closed out the game and helped Tarleton State clinch the series with a 12-6 win.
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