TUCSON, Ariz. – The Utah baseball team defeated seventh-ranked Arizona, 7-3, on Friday evening to take the series over the Wildcats.
Arizona held a 2-1 lead after seven innings before the Utes scored two runs in the eighth to take the lead and added four runs in the ninth for the win.
Riley Ottesen, Dylan Drachler and Chase Bauerle combined to hold off the nation’s third-ranked offense on the mound. Ottesen threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Drachler pitched 1 1/3 innings and earned the win. He didn’t allow a hit or run (one walk, one strikeout). Bauerle pitched the final inning, allowing one unearned run on two hits with a strikeout.
Utah was led at the plate by Ellis Kelly, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI. He hit a double and scored two runs. Freshmen Dominic Foscalina and Oliver Dunn each had two hits on the night while Hunter Simmons drove in two runs.
Ottesen and Arizona’s Cameron Ming spent the early innings locked in a pitcher’s duel, as each team had just two hits through the first five innings. Both teams put a run up in the sixth. Utah got on the board in the top of the inning as Foscalina doubled and Kelly followed with an RBI single. Arizona took advantage of a pair of walks with an RBI single scoring a run to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth.
Utah left two runs on in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with one out after three walks in the inning before Arizona forced a double play to get out of it. The Wildcats used the momentum to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning after a pair of hits.
The Utes rallied in the top of the eighth. With one out, Kelly doubled to center. DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. reached base when he was hit by a pitch, and Oliver Dunn and Dallas Carroll hit back-to-back RBI singles to give the Utes a 3-2 lead.
Josh Rose led off the ninth when he was hit by a pitch and he moved to second on a balk and third on a ground out before Kelly drove him home with an RBI single. Dunn put runners at the corners with a single and Carroll walked to load the bases for Hunter Simmons, who plated two more runs with a single up the middle. Carroll added another run on a wild pitch to put the Utes up 7-2.
A pair of singles in the ninth inning would lead to a run on a ground out for Arizona in the ninth inning before Bauerle struck out the final batter to end the game.
Utah goes for the series sweep on Saturday, April 22, at 6:00 p.m. MST/7:00 p.m. MDT.
