Baseball Evens Series With Stanford, 8-4
STANFORD – The Utah baseball team evened up the series with Stanford winning Saturday's game 8-4 at Sunken Diamond.
Utah scored four runs in the fourth and then three more in the eighth to break the game wide open to earn the victory over Stanford.
The Utes totaled 12 hits with Kai Roberts and Matt Richardson each going 3-4 on the afternoon.
Randon Hostert came out of the bullpen for Kyle Robeniol and only allowed one base runner over the final three innings to shut the door and secure the win for Utah.
Stanford got the early jump on Utah scoring two runs in the third to take an early lead. The Utes responded quickly with four runs in the top of the fourth. Shea Kramer came up with the big hit, knocking a triple to clear the bases and put Utah up 3-2. A couple batters later, Richardson hit a single to score Kramer bringing the score to 4-2.
The Cardinal tied up the score with one run in the fifth and one run in the sixth. In the seventh, Jayden Kiernan opened the frame with a single and a couple batters later, Brock Rudy knocked a single to score Kiernan from second for the go-ahead run.
After Hostert sat them down in order, Utah kept the pressure on Stanford at the plate. Christopher Rowan, Jr. pinch hit and knocked a solo home run and then the flood gates opened. Richardson got his third hit of the day and Jaylon McLaughlin roped a double down the left-field line to score Richardson from first. Kiernan pushed Utah's lead to four with a sacrifice fly to score McLaughlin.
Hostert pitched the final 4.1 innings and only allowed one earned run on three hits. Over the final three innings, Stanford only had one base runner. Robeniol pitched 4.2 innings and struck out six. He allowed three runs on seven hits.
Each of Utah's eight runs was scored by a different player. With his triple, Kramer led the team with three RBI. Vinny Zavolta drew three walks and Rudy drew two walks in addition to his go-ahead RBI single in the seventh inning.
The rubber match between Utah and Stanford will be Sunday, March 21 at 1 p.m.