Box score (game 1)

Box score (game 2)



OREM, UT—Utah Valley continued as the hottest team in all of NCAA Division I college baseball, taking its 21st and 22nd consecutive wins Friday night by sweeping a Great West Conference doubleheader from visiting NJIT, 6-3 and 12-2.
 
The doubleheader sweep pushed Utah Valley, the two-time defending Great West baseball champ, to 15-0 in conference play this season and 29-11 overall. NJIT, which entered this series as the second-place team in the GWC, falls to 9-6 in the conference after dropping the first three games of the four-game set to the Wolverines. Friday's results also pushed the Highlanders a game under .500 overall, at 17-18.
 
Friday's opening game, as is the case with one contest in each GWC series, was scheduled for seven innings. The nightcap lasted eight of the scheduled nine innings due to the conference's 10-run rule, which halts proceedings when one team leads by at least 10 and the trailing team has batted in seven innings.
 
Utah Valley, which leads the nation with a team batting average near .350, has reached double-figure scoring 16 times in its 22-game winning streak. The Wolverines have also won via the 10-run rule four times in the last five games, with the only exception in that streak being the 6-3 opening-game win on Friday.
 
NJIT, which managed one hit in the series-opening 14-0 loss to UVU on Thursday night, stayed close in Game One on Friday, behind the work of starting pitcher DJ Roche, who held the explosive Wolverines to two runs through the first four innings.
 
In doing so, Roche put NJIT in position to take its first lead of the series with a two-run top of the fifth inning that pushed the Highlanders into a 3-2 advantage.
 
However, Utah Valley answered quickly, with four runs in the bottom half of the inning against Roche and two relievers. Three of the runs in the decisive four-run fifth for UVU were unearned, as NJIT, which committed three errors in the first series game, made another crucial miscue in the midst of Utah Valley's decisive rally.
 
The Highlanders, who got five hits in the 6-3 loss, generated their series-best nine hits in the doubleheader nightcap, but they were never in it after the first two innings. The Wolverines built a 7-0 lead in those two frames and eased to victory, triggering the 10-run rule while batting in the bottom of the eighth inning, when they scored twice and had the bases loaded with two outs.
 
In the opener, Roche was tagged with the loss, falling to 3-4 after lasting 4.1 innings and allowing five hits and five runs (two earned). He struck out one and walked three. Junior left-hander Austin McAuliffe replaced Roche in the fifth inning and balked home an inherited runner before getting an out and allowing a solo home run to Utah Valley's slugging senior first baseman, Goose Kalunki. Junior RHP Kyle Burdi got the last out of the fifth inning for NJIT and then allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless sixth.
 
Utah Valley senior right-hander Preston Olson went to 5-0 on the year with a five-inning start that included five hits, three runs, four strikeouts and two walks. Sophomore RHP Taylor Mangum finished up with two scoreless, hitless innings, striking out three and walking one.
 
The Wolverines got seven hits in Game One, paced by two each from Kalunki and senior 3B Jake Rickenbach. One of Kalunki's hits was his 11th homer of the year. UVU also got doubles from C Alex Exon and 2B Willie Pratt.
 
NJIT had five hits, getting two from freshman Andrew Benjamin, who went 2-for-3 in his fourth start of the season, getting the nod in right field. Another freshman, 2B Mike Rampone, was 1-for-2 with two runs batted in. Sophomore SS Matt Weckerle got a hit in his only official at-bat and he also walked twice.
 
Utah Valley got the first run of the game when it crossed the plate on a double play in the first inning. NJIT tied the score when Benjamin doubled to open the third inning and later scored on a ground out by Rampone.
 
UVU got the run right back in the bottom half, on an unearned run, but NJIT claimed its first lead, 3-2, on a pair of runs in the fifth inning. With one out, Benjamin singled and Jeff Pizzi followed him with an RBI double. Pizzi moved up on a wild pitch and then came home on a Rampone single.
 
Utah Valley cashed in on a series of NJIT mistakes that included a wild pitch, an error, and a balk to score the first three runs of its four-run fifth, before Kalunki unloaded his home run to cap the scoring at 6-3.
 
Game Two began poorly for the Highlanders, as Utah Valley scored three runs in the first inning and four in the second against NJIT's top-notch junior left-hander Tripp Davis, who would take the loss, falling to 4-2 on the season after 3.2 innings that included nine hits and seven runs (six earned), with three strikeouts and three walks.
 
Freshman Conor McGlynn, in his first college appearance, went 3.1 innings, allowing four hits and three runs. Senior Reid Okita, also making his first appearance of 2012, allowed two runs in a third of an inning and freshman AJ Bashaw got the last out before the game ended. The four Highlander pitchers allowed 13 hits and nine walks, with five of the free passes coming in the last inning.
 
Utah Valley senior right-hander Jeremy Gendlek raised his season record to 8-3 with six innings of five-hit, one-run ball. The 2011 Great West Pitcher of the Year, Gendlek struck out six Highlanders and walked one. Senior Josh Swenson pitched the last two innings, yielding four hits and a run, with a walk and two strikeouts.
 
Kallunki and senior DH Austin Heaps each got three hits for the winners in the nightcap. Kallunki, who clubbed his 12th home run of the season, a three-run shot in the opening inning, finished the game with four runs batted in. Kallunki's home run and a double for freshman Jody Hart in UVU's four-run second inning were the only extra-base hits for the Wolverines.
 
NJIT got two hits apiece from Rampone, Weckerle, and Roche. Senior catcher Bryan Bleakley hit his Highlander-best sixth home run of the season, a solo shot that led off the fifth inning.
 
Utah Valley's 7-0 lead after two innings held until the Bleakley homer in the fifth inning, but the Wolverines got it right back with a run in the bottom of the fifth for an 8-1 lead. UVU tacked on two more runs in the sixth for a 10-1 advantage before NJIT scored in the top of the eighth, with the run coming home on a Tom Bouck single with one out.
 
The two Wolverine runs that invoked the run rule came in on a bases-loaded fielder's choice out and later on a bases-loaded walk.
 
Utah Valley and NJIT will close out the series on Saturday with a single game scheduled for an 11 am (Mountain) first pitch.