OREM, Utah – Utah's
Karson Bodily was 3-for-3 with his second multi-hit game in as many nights, but Utah Valley broke a 5-5 tie with an eighth inning RBI triple and took a 6-5 contest from the Utes on Tuesday night at UCCU Ballpark.
The Utes will resume Pac-12 Conference play on Friday night, welcoming California for a three-game series at Smith's Ballpark. First pitch in the series opener is set for 6 p.m. MT.
Seven different players had a hit for Utah, including doubles for
TJ Clarkson, Bodily and
Bruer Webster. Bodily's three hits were a career-high for the junior.
UVU grabbed an early run in the bottom of the first, before the Utes leveled the score at one-apiece in their half of the second inning.
Cameron Gurney walked with one out, then after two singles,
Jake Gish hit a grounder to shortstop but the UVU double play attempt fell through allowing Gurney to cross the plate.
The teams would exchange runs over the middle innings; it began in the fourth when the Utes put together three straight two-out hits and came away with two runs. Bodily kicked it off with a first-pitch double down the left field line, coming around when Gish laced a single up the middle. Webster then smacked a double that went over the left fielder and bounced off the wall to bring in Gish and give Utah a 3-2 lead.
In the home half, the Wolverines jumped on a pair of Utes errors to log two runs. But Utah quickly leveled the score at four when it got back to the bats. Clarkson led off with a double off the center field wall, scoring on
Davis Cop's base hit.
UVU would get two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 5-4 lead, only for the Utes to tie it back up at five-all with a sixth-inning sac fly.
That score remained until the bottom of the eighth when UVU put a two-out single into right field and followed that with a triple to bring the game to its final score of 6-5.
Jaden Harris went three innings in the start, later being relieved by
Randon Hostert.
Blake Whiting had three strikeouts in 1.2 scoreless innings of relief before
Micah Ashman worked the final 1.1 innings for Utah on the mound.
Follow Utah baseball on social media (@utahbaseball).