Utes Dominate Washington State, 9-1

Wednesday, April 22

Salt Lake City (Spring Mobile Ballpark-formerly Franklin Covey)

6:00 PM

University of Utah

14-22

Washington State

19-17

Washington State

Utah

4/22/2009 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 22, 2009

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah baseball team snapped a 10 game slide in dominant fashion on Wednesday evening, defeating Washington State, 9-1, at Spring Mobile Ballpark.

"It was good for us to break through and get the monkey off our backs," head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "I always say that you make your own luck, but we've been unlucky. Tonight, we got all the breaks and we got out of situations that we haven't been getting out of. I am proud of our guys and the way that they kept going and I hope this will be a springboard for us."

Although the Utes loaded the bases in the first inning, the team could not push a run across the plate. Washington State got on the board in the second as Matt Argyropoulos homered over the left field fence.

Utah took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Michael Beltran and Zach Jones had back-to-back singles and Beltran scored on Tyler Yagi's single up the middle. Nick Kuroczko drove in two runners with a double to right field that landed about two feet fair, putting the Utes on top.

Ute starter Bryn Card pitched out of a jam in the third inning, as WSU loaded the bases before Card struck out Michael Weber to end the inning. Utah added a run in the bottom of the third with Devin Walker hitting his third home run of the season, giving the Utes a 4-1 lead.

The Cougars put two runners on base with no outs in the fifth inning but Card continued to roll as Greg Lagreid popped up for an out, Derek Jones struck out and Zack Jones laid out in center field for a diving catch to take extra bases away from Weber for the third out.

Utah broke the game open in the sixth inning, taking advantage of an error to score five unearned runs. With two on base after Zach Jones walked and Corey Shimada got a bounce for an infield single, Kuroczko reached on a throwing error that continued the inning and sent Jones in to score. C.J. Cron singled up the middle to plate both Kuroczko and Shimada. Austin Jones kept the inning going with a single and Walker walked to again load the bases, setting up a two RBI single for Gavin Green and putting Utah up 9-1.

Greg Krause pitched both the sixth and seventh innings for the Utes, settling down after allowing a pair of hits to begin the sixth inning before striking out three of the seven batters that he faced. Stephen Streich closed out the game for Utah, allowing just one hit through the final two innings.

Card raised his record to 3-2 with the victory. He had six strikeouts.

"Bryn Card really set the table for us," Kinneberg said. "The plan was for us to pitch him for five innings then have Krause and Streich each pitch two. It worked for us tonight."

Walker led Utah with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate, which included a double in addition to his home run. Kuroczko, Cron and Beltran each had a pair of hits.

Washington State was led by Alex Burg, who was 2-for-4 on the evening. Adam Conley, who pitched the first four innings and allowed four runs on seven hits, picked up the loss.

Up next for Utah is No. 1 ranked UC Irvine, Thursday through Saturday at Spring Mobile Ballpark.