@NCBearsBaseball Splits Sunday with Utah Valley

Sunday, April 30

Greeley, Colo.

10:30 am

University of Northern Colorado

16-23, 5-9

Utah Valley

14-26, 7-7

Utah Valley

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

4/30/2017 6:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Thomas Hoffman, uncbears.com

GAME 1 (PDF) | GAME 2 (PDF)

Greeley, Colo – On a windy day in the High Plains of Northern Colorado, the Bears and Wolverines split a pair of conference games. UNC took the opening contest, 7-0, but surrendered to UVU, 9-5, in the second.

GAME 1
Aaron Hamilton dealt quickly in the first inning. Two strikeouts, combined with a grounder to first and Northern Colorado quickly went on the offensive in the bottom of the first inning.

After dropping in the count early in the at-bat, Corey Nakakura drew four straight balls to make his way to first base. Immediately, head coach, Carl Iwasaki played a little small ball, moving Nakakura on a sacrifice bunt from Alex Kiel. Two batters later, an infield hit left runners on the corners with two outs. Burkart couldn't quite find the hit the Bears needed, though, stranding Nakakura and Johnson on the base pads.

Two consecutive singles from the Wolverines had the away side threatening in the top of the second. On the inning's third at-bat, Evan Johnson robbed UVU of extra base hits, making an incredible diving play in left field. Now with two on and one out, Skyler Davis singled to centerfield, but lazy base running from Utah Valley let Nick Tanner throw out the runner at third, ending the inning before they could score a run.

Nick Tanner turned his attention to offense, drawing a walk and quickly stealing second base to lead-off the inning. Cole Maltese followed Tanner with a walk of his own, leaving the Bears with two on and no one out. Grabbing further production out of the bottom end of the order, Tyler Yamaguchi singled to left field directly after Brett Minick moved the runners, scoring game's first run. A wild pitch in the next at-bat pushed across the second run and suddenly Northern Colorado led, 2-0.

Utah Valley did their best to keep a two out rally going in the third inning. Strikeout king, Aaron Hamilton came up with a monstrous strikeout against the Wolverine's best hitter to get out of the inning ahead, 2-0.

An inning later, an error followed by a single had two runners on with only one out. Both UVU runner advanced a base via grounder to second, putting the pressure on Hamilton and the home squad. For a second time in as many innings, Hamilton delivered a heartbreaking strikeout to throw up another zero for the Wolverines.

Two walks given up by Hamilton in the fifth inning, just his first two of the day, gave the away side another scoring opportunity with two out. However, for the third straight inning, Hamilton came up with the inning-ending out, this time a fly out to second.

Nakakura, for the second time Sunday, led-off an inning with a walk. After a picture-perfect bunt and a Pauley grounder, UNC had runners at second and third with only a single out. Evan Johnson drew a walk to load the bases, bringing up freshman, Billy Moreland. Moreland neatly notched his second RBI of the season, singling to left field. Hits from Nick Tanner and more aggressive base running led to five total runs, stretching their lead to 7-0.

The Northern Colorado defense continued to make plays behind Aaron Hamilton. Jack Pauley came up with diving catch in the seventh inning that rivaled Evan Johnson's second inning grab. Hamilton gave both a breather, dealing his third strikeout looking to end the frame.

Dylan Shiraki took control of the mound in the eighth inning. Though, aesthetically, Shiraki poses a 180 degree difference to Hamilton, the senior delivered a 1-2-3 inning to start his afternoon. In the final frame, Shiraki took on UVU's seven, eight and nine hitters, setting down the Wolverines in order too, winning their fifth WAC contest, 7-0.

GAME 2
Karver Pate received the nod from head coach, Carl Iwasaki to start game two. A two-out double was the only blemish during the opening half-inning, coming out with two strikeouts.

Catcher Alex Kiel sparked the Bears' offense in the bottom half of the inning with a single. Two hits later from Jack Pauley and Evan Johnson let Kiel speed around third and touch home to take the lead, 1-0. A wild pitch combined with a double from Cole Maltese gave the home side an early 3-0 advantage.

Pate gave up his first walk with one out in the second inning. A nifty 6-4-3 double play, capped off with an incredible pick from Brett Minick on first sent Northern Colorado back to the dish in the bottom half.

Jack Pauley doubled in the bottom of the third inning and swiftly moved to third via a sacrifice fly from Evan Johnson. Standing just 90 feet away from a UNC fourth run, Pauley was kept at bay after Nick Tanner grounded to second.

A hit batter and a walk to start the fourth inning prompted pitching coach, RD Speihs to call upon Corey Nakakura to come in relief. An error, stolen base and a hit led to two runs, drawing the Wolverines within one.

Nakakura, UNC's do-everything playwe on Sunday, singled to short and trotted his way to second when the shortstop throw it into the Bears' clubhouse. Jack Pauley, two batters later, doubled to center, scoring Nakakura and growing the lead, 4-2.

Utah Valley came right back with a run in the sixth inning coming from two hits and two ground balls. The Wolverines, with three innings remaining, had climbed back within one.

The lead-off runner climbed aboard in the top of the seventh inning. However, two giant strikeouts from relief pitcher, Anthony Brady, coupled with Alex Kiel gunning down a runner at second base, kept UVU from even thinking about tying the game.

With the wind whipping in from left center field, Tyler Yamaguchi's lead-off hit trundled to the wall, allowing Yamaguchi to scamper all the way to third to lead off the bottom half of the frame. Another ball in the air from Nakakura befuddled Wolverine outfielders and fell in front of the left fielder, allowing Yamaguchi to scurry home, providing insurance extending UNC's lead, 5-3.

Two free passes in the first three batters issued a pep talk from associate head coach, RD Speihs for the second time. Anthony Brady came back with a strikeout for the penultimate out in the inning. However, the Wolverines countered with a base hit to left field, coming within one for the third time in the ballgame.

After a wild pitch, the tying and go-ahead run advanced to third and second, respectively. An errant throw from catcher, Alex Kiel allowed the tying run home. Much to the chagrin of the Bear faithful on hand, a walk, hit batter and base hit produced five total runs, taking the lead 8-5.

Trevor Peterson, Northern Colorado's thorn in their heel, reached for the third time in game two. Even though UNC came away with two outs, a balk and a single to left scored Peterson and the Wolverines stretched their lead to four, leading 9-5.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Northern Colorado couldn't produce any late-game magic, going down in order. The loss, 9-5, dropped the Bears to 5-10 in WAC play.

KEY STAT
LOB – UNC stranded 15 Wolverine runners throughout Sunday, while only 11 UNC base runners were left on.

MOST VALUABLE BEAR
Aaron Hamilton – Hamilton went seven strong innings with six strikeouts in the Bears' win Saturday morning over Utah Valley.

IN THEIR WORDS
Carl Iwasaki, Head Coach
"First of all, I want give thanks to our support staff. Obviously, our grounds crew helped us get through Friday and on in Saturday. Everyone did a great job to get us through this weekend and fulfill what we needed to for the WAC."

"Great win this morning. A really quality start from Hamilton going seven innings strong. That's a little sample of what we can do when we start playing together and posting up runs early and often. I like where we were, basically, throughout the entire day except for one inning. Five runs, unearned, was disappointing and we need to get better at that."

Aaron Hamilton, Pitcher
"Huge win this morning. I thought that we just went out and competed like we knew how to do. Things just didn't go out way in the second game."

"It gives me great confidences that any ball in the air, they'll track it down and make plays. At the end of the day, I wanted to get outs and put my team in a position to get a win."

Evan Johnson, Left Fielder
"We kind of beat ourselves in the second game. We had a lead going into the late innings. We feel bad for our pitchers today. As hitters, we didn't do enough for them. We'll be really good once we clean up the little things."

"It was a different set of conditions today. We had to make a lot of adjustments as we went along. I think that our coaches helped us adjust well and we were able to make some plays that they didn't."

NOTABLES
-Evan Johnson and Jack Pauley made spectacular plays on a day where the wind played a major factor.
-Corey Nakakura pitched a season-high, three full innings.
-Alex Kiel caught both games, 18 straight innings, throwing out three runners.
-UNC pitching hurled twelve straight innings without an run Saturday.

UP NEXT
Northern Colorado hits the road to take on CSU Baskersfield for a three-game set. They'll return home on May 18, for a WAC series against Chicago State.