UVU (25-21, 11-11) used a season-high five home runs in the win. Casey Anderson went 7.0 innings while striking out nine SFA (21-15, 12-15) hitters and scattering five hits.

“It was a great team effort today. Danny Dickinson, Brandon Luna, and Casey Anderson set the tone, and there were a lot of others that contributed as supporting cast,” said UVU head coach Eddie Smith.

The Wolverines scored on the first pitch they saw when Dickinson hit his first homer of the day to go up 1-0.

Trey Cutchen was hit by a pitch to start the second inning and scored on a ground ball that rolled deep into the right-center field gap, allowing Broussard to hustle into second base. As UVU led 2-0, Brandon Luna hit his first of two long balls on the day with a shot over the right field fence to make it 4-0. The Wolverines went back-to-back for the first time this year on Dickinson’s second homer of the day and put Utah Valley in front 5-0.

Anderson held the Lumberjacks hitless for the first three innings before the Jacks loaded the bases in the fourth. He was able to work around the situation on two strikeouts and a fielder’s choice that scored his only allowed run.

The Wolverines did not waste long answering as Luna collected the second of his four hits with a single and scored on Dickinson’s third round tripper with a shot to straightaway center field and gave UVU a comfortable 7-1 lead. He is the first player to hit three homers in a game since Kirk Doxey in 2009 at Air Force.

SFA scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth before Luna hit his second homer of the game to make it 8-3 Utah Valley. Devin Smith pitched the final inning, recording a pair of strikeouts.

Utah Valley stays home next weekend for a three-game series against New Mexico State that begins on Friday, May 12, with a 6:05 p.m. MT start. The series continues Saturday, May 13, at 2:05 p.m. MT and wraps up on Sunday, May 14, at 12:05 p.m. MT.

UVU softball’s season ends with losses to Utah Tech

The Utah Valley Wolverines dropped their final two games of the season, falling to the Utah Tech Trailblazers 6-3 and 10-2 in Saturday’s doubleheader.

The loss drops Utah Valley (10-14 WAC) into a three-way tie for eighth place with California Baptist and Abilene Christian, but CBU will claim the final spot in next week’s WAC Tournament by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over both teams.

Early inning runs from the Trailblazers spelled doom for the Wolverines, as Utah Valley was unable to dig itself out of the deficits in either game.

In Game 1, Utah Tech plated a pair of runs in the first off of a home run from Shea Clements, and added another in the third on a solo shot from Hannah Hughbanks.

The Wolverines had trouble capitalizing with runners on in game one, stranding seven runners on base, including four in the first three innings. Payge Armendariz broke through with a one-out RBI double to score Angelique Mann, but an inning-ending double play two batters later snuffed out the rally.

The Trailblazers got that run back with another solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. Megan Gibbs gave Utah Valley a pair of runs in the fifth when she blasted her 11th home run of the season out to left field.

Utah Tech plated some key insurance runs in the bottom half of the sixth to re-extend the lead back up to three. Rylee Thorpe doubled with two outs in the seventh, but the Wolverines were unable to capitalize on it.

Utah Valley escaped a jam in the bottom of the first of Game 2 by allowing just one run, but the Trailblazers blitzed the Wolverines for four runs in both the second and third innings to pull away.

The Wolverines got two runs back in the fourth with an RBI groundout from Kalena Shepherd and an RBI double from Armendariz, but Utah Tech was able to secure the run-rule victory in the fifth with a walk-off sacrifice fly.

Gibbs’ 11 home runs in 2023 is tied for the eighth-most in a single season in program history, and her 20 career home runs ranks seventh in UVU history.