Box score

OREM, UT—Utah Valley made it 23 straight wins—the longest active streak in Division I college baseball—with an 11-7 triumph over visiting NJIT Saturday in the fourth and final game of a weekend Great West Conference series between the teams at Brent Brown Ballpark.
 
The Wolverines, who last lost more than a month ago on March 22 (13-3 in a non-conference game vs. Sacramento State), are now 16-0 in the Great West, having swept all four of their four-game conference series to date. Their overall record is 30-11, marking the third straight year they have reached the 30-win mark.
 
Indeed, Utah Valley has been nearly unbeatable in conference play since the Great West began baseball competition in 2010. The Wolverines captured both the regular season and postseason tournament crowns in 2010 and 2011, going a perfect 4-0 in each of the two tournaments. Their combined record in Great West games, regular season and postseason, is now 72-4.
 
NJIT, which had won 12 of 15 games overall, including 3-1 records in each of its first three GWC series, going into the weekend series at UVU, is now 9-7 in conference play and 17-19 overall.
 
With 12 conference games remaining, Utah Valley has not secured its third-consecutive regular season crown mathematically, but that outcome is all but assured.
 
NJIT, on the other hand, can now focus on the close race for second place over the last 12 conference games. Aside from the pride of a high finish, the second-place team will go on the opposite side of the postseason bracket from the presumptive first-place team, Utah Valley, which  hosts the Great West Tournament May 22 to 26. There were four teams, including NJIT, bunched within a game-and-a-half of each other in places two through five in the GWC standings entering play on Saturday.
 
In Saturday's game, which began at 11:05 am Mountain Time, saw Utah Valley, the top hitting team in Division I (.348 team batting average) get 16 hits total and build a 3-1 lead after three innings, before pulling away with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, helped along by four NJIT errors in the fateful half-inning.
 
The teams traded runs in the fifth, giving the Wolverines a 9-2 advantage. After two scoreless innings, the Highlanders got two runs in the eighth, answered by two for UVU in the bottom half, and then NJIT scored three in the top of the ninth for the 11-7 final.
 
The fourth game of the series featured NJIT's best offensive output and was the only one of the three games scheduled for nine innings that actually went that long. Utah Valley won the opener, scheduled for nine, in seven innings, 14-0, on Thursday night under the Great West's 10-run rule (winning team leads by at least 10 and the losing team has had seven innings of at-bats). Friday's doubleheader, saw UVU win the first game, scheduled for seven innings, 6-3 and then the nightcap was shortened to eight innings by the run rule, 12-2.
 
Utah Valley has scored in double-figures 16 times in its 23-game winning streak and four of its last six wins have involved the 10-run rule.
 
Wolverine third baseman and leadoff batter Jake Rickenbach went 2-for-5, extending his personal hitting streak to 24 games, which ties the Utah Valley school record. Senior RF Billy Burgess was 4-for-6, including three doubles and senior 1B Goose Kalunki, first in the nation in runs batted in entering play, drove in one run, raising his season RBI total to 60.
 
Other Wolverines with two hits on Saturday were senior DH Austin Heaps, junior SS Kai Hatch, and senior C Alex Exon. Paced by Burgess, UVU hit five doubles on the day.
 
NJIT, which tied its series-high with nine hits on Saturday, got two each from the top two men in its batting order, freshman SS Mike Rampone and junior LF Jeff Pizzi.
 
Rampone's fifth-inning one-out solo home run, his third four-bagger of the year, was the game's only homer for either side. Tom Bouck hit NJIT's only double and Bryan Bleakley (1-for-3) drove in two runs to top the Highlanders in that category.
 
Utah Valley used seven pitchers in the game and the second, senior right-hander Ryan Chadwick, upped his record to 4-0 with two-thirds of an inning in relief of the starter, sophomore RHP Devin Nelson, who allowed two runs on three hits and four walks in 4.1 innings. With NJIT having scored five runs in the last two innings, junior right-hander Justin Campbell picked up his first save of the year, entering with the bases loaded and retiring all three batters he faced in the ninth inning. Campbell allowed one inherited runner to score, as the first batter he faced, Bleakley, drove in the runner from third with a sacrifice fly.
 
The losing pitcher for the Highlanders was freshman right-hander Bill VanMeerbeke, the starter, who dropped to 1-3 on the year after allowing seven runs (four earned) on nine hits and three walks.
 
NJIT used three relievers and the most effective was the second, sophomore RHP Joe Fasano, who pitched the sixth and seventh innings and held the Wolverines scoreless on two hits and two hit batters.
 
The Highlanders, who began the season playing strong defense (no more than two errors in any of the first 20 games), have slipped in that area since. They had one bad defensive game in each of their first three conference series and, not surprisingly, those bad games were the three they lost (five errors in the one loss to Northern Colorado; four errors in the one loss at Houston Baptist; and, five errors in the one loss to North Dakota).
 
Against Utah Valley, they made at least two errors in each of the four losses, and at least three in three of the games, including five on Saturday. In doing so, it made any already daunting task even more difficult and UVU made just one error combined in the four games, compared to 13 by the Highlanders.
 
In Friday's 6-3 loss, NJIT had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning, only to allow four in the bottom half, with three of the UVU runs in the decisive inning going in the books as unearned. On Saturday, the four errors in Utah Valley's five-run fifth inning helped the Wolverines stretch a 3-1 lead to 8-1, changing the complexion of the game, especially considering that NJIT rallied for five tallies in its last two at-bats.
 
UVU opened Saturday's scoring with a pair of runs in the second inning, as Hatch doubled leading off and scored on a single by Exon. Later in the inning, Rickenbach hit a two-out double to drive in the second run.
 
NJIT got a run back in the third, as Pizzi hit a one-out single, stole second and scored on a two-out single up the middle for DJ Roche.
 
Utah Valley, as it seemed to do whenever NJIT did anything with the bats in the series, answered with a run in the bottom half, as Kallunki's infield single drove in Burgess, who had opened the frame with one of his three doubles. The Wolverines loaded the bases with no one out, but VanMeerbeke escaped further damage by notching three straight outs.
 
There was no escaping the bottom of the fourth inning, however, as Utah Valley scored five times against VanMeerbeke and Matt Coughlin, despite getting just one hit in the inning. However, there were two walks and four NJIT errors in the inning.
 
Rampone hit his home run in the top of the fifth inning, but UVU made it 9-2 in the next half-inning on a run-scoring single for Heaps.
 
The Highlanders scored twice in the eighth inning, as Anthony Caiola singled to lead off and Bouck hit his double. Bleakley's ground out brought home Caiola and Scott Brosman followed with an RBI single.
 
The Wolverines answered immediately in the bottom of the eighth with two runs against the fourth Highlander pitcher, freshman Mike Liegel. The first two batters got on base and the first, Willie Pratt, moved up to third base on an outfield foul out. He then scored on a ground out by junior LF Sean Moysh. The third double of the day by Burgess later brought in UVU's second run of the inning and 11th of the day.
 
NJIT, down 11-4 entering the ninth inning, rekindled memories of its five-run last-inning rally to beat North Dakota, 8-7, on April 21. The first three Highlander batters in the ninth inning walked and Caiola was hit by a pitch, forcing home a run. Bouck then walked, forcing in another run.
 
That brought Campbell in from the UVU bullpen with the bases loaded and the score at 11-6, with no one out. Bleakley made the first out, but he also drove in another run with his sac fly to center, but Campbell closed out the save with a fly out and fielder's choice ground out.
 
The Highlanders will aim to get back on track when they play a non-conference game on Tuesday at 7 pm, in a visit to Wagner at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark on Staten Island.