LOS ANGELES - Eight Utes combined for 12 hits and southpaw
Bryson Van Sickle provided four key innings of relief as the Utah baseball team picked up a 10-7 win over Loyola Marymount on Saturday night at Page Stadium. The Utes will look to close out a series sweep on Sunday, Feb. 20, when the squad meets LMU one final time in a game beginning at 2 p.m. MT.
Chase Anderson logged his first three-hit game as a Ute, going 3-for-5 out of the three-hole with a walk, two RBI and three runs scored.
Alex Baeza was right behind in the cleanup spot, tallying a 2-for-4 night with a walk, one RBI and a pair of runs scored.
Utah battled through a two-out situation to strike first in the opening inning. Anderson kept the inning alive with a single through the right side, then stole second and came in when Baeza went opposite field for a double to left center.
A six-spot then followed for the Utes in inning number two as the visitors sent 10 men to bat.
Gabe Singer used an RBI groundout to plate
Brock Rudy, then after a two-out walk issued to
Carter Booth,
Kai Roberts sent the first pitch he saw to right field scoring
Matt Richardson.
Anderson then put a single through the left side driving in Roberts and Booth for Anderson's first RBI as a Ute. A passed ball and fielding error gave Utah two more tallies and a 7-0 lead.
But LMU countered right away with five runs of its own and all with two outs. Utah called upon Van Sickle late in the inning in a 7-5 game, getting out of the second inning without any further harm.
Utah did get one run back in its half of the third when Booth singled through the right side, scoring Richardson and moving the score to 8-5.
Van Sickle (1-0) remained in the game until the bottom of the sixth, a four-inning span where Van Sickle struck out four and allowed one run on a hit and one walk. He was relieved by
David Watson, who induced a fly ball tracked down by Booth to end the sixth.
Up a pair headed into the eighth, Utah rounded out its scoring with a pair of insurance runs. In a full-on battle of an at bat, Anderson led off the inning working for nine pitches (including three straight fouls) before winning the encounter and getting aboard with a base hit. Baeza then reached on an error putting Anderson at third on the play. Back-to-back sac flies by
Jayden Kiernan and
Davis Cop then scored both.
Blake Whiting entered in the bottom of the eighth in his Utah debut, going the balance of the game. He fanned two in his first appearance as a Ute, both in the ninth inning.
Follow Utah baseball on social media @utahbaseball.