Utah Sweeps Doubleheader over Northern Colorado

Tuesday, March 21

Salt Lake City, UT

2:00 PM

University of Utah

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Bryan Byerly/Utah Athletics

Utah Sweeps Doubleheader over Northern Colorado

3/21/2023 11:56 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Utes pick up 12-5 and 12-8 victories in Tuesday twinbill at Smith’s Ballpark

SALT LAKE CITY – Cameron Gurney and Jayden Kiernan each had four RBI and Micah Ashman capped the doubleheader with his fifth save of the season as the Utah baseball team took a pair of contests from Northern Colorado on Tuesday at Smith's Ballpark.

The Utes (10-11) now prepare to resume Pac-12 Conference play with a trip to No. 9 Stanford. With the Cardinal on final exams this week, the series will run Saturday through Monday at Sunken Diamond, with Saturday's opener scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. MT first pitch.

Game 1 – Utah 12, Northern Colorado 5 (8 innings)
The first contest of the day was called after eight innings due to reaching a pre-determined time that no new inning could begin. The cutoff was put in place to allow enough time for field preparation heading into game two, which was scheduled to air on TV and radio with a start time of 6:05 p.m.

Six different Utes had multi-hit performances as the team finished with a season-high 16, led by three apiece for Jayden Kiernan and Cameron Gurney. Kiernan and Dakota Duffalo each doubled during the win.

Matt Flaharty recorded his first three RBI as a Ute, while Gurney's three hits and three runs driven in both tied his career-bests.

Left-hander Ernesto Lugo-Canchola picked up the win (2-0) for the Utes, thanks to 2.1 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit and a walk. TJ Clarkson, Bransen Kuehl, Blake Whiting and Jaxon Grossman also saw time on the bump.

Utah scored in every inning except the first, leaving the teams tied at one after two innings of play. Davis Cop broke the deadlock with an RBI single in the third to score Clarkson, then Utah pulled away with three-spots in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings plus a single run in the fifth frame.

Game 2 – Utah 12, Northern Colorado 8
The Utes put up eight runs in the first inning, aided by seven walks and three hit batsmen, ultimately sending 14 batters to the plate and never looking back.

Jayden Kiernan had three RBI in the nightcap and Landon Frei, Dakota Duffalo plus Jake Gish contributed multi-hit performances. Gish also drove in three runs with a bases-loaded triple—his first as a Ute—during that big first inning.

Bruer Webster had a two-run double during the fourth inning, then Frei and Kiernan added sacrifice flies later in the ballgame to wrap up the Utes' second consecutive 12-run total.

Jaden Harris (1-2) went three innings in the start on a staff day for the Utes, with Harris striking out a season-high four batters. Randon Hostert relieved Harris for an inning, Zac McCleve came on for 2.2 innings and Micah Ashman closed the door over the final 2.1 innings of the ballgame.

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