Baseball Earns 7-3 Win in Series Opener Over Washington

SEATTLE – Utah baseball earned a 7-3 Friday night win over the Washington Huskies on Pac-12 Network in Seattle at Husky Ballpark.
 
Justin Kelly got the win after pitching 7.0 innings and only giving up two runs on seven hits. He struck out seven.
 
The Utes only totaled six hits on the evening, but made them count. Chase Fernlund went 2-3 with three RBI and Kai Roberts went 1-5 also having three RBI.
 
Utah got on the board first scoring three runs in the second. With the bases loaded, Fernlund knocked a double scoring two. A couple batters later, Richardson hit a hard shot to second that got away from the second baseman to score the third run of the inning.
 
The Huskies bounced back with a two-run homer to bring the score to 3-2 after the second. Those two runs proved to be the only two runs Kelly would give up all night.
 
In the sixth Utah got going again starting with a Rykker Tom single. He advanced to second and with two outs, Fernlund singled up the middle to score Tom for his third RBI of the game. After two walks, Kai Roberts smacked a double to clear the bases putting the Utes up 7-2.
 
From there, Utah's pitching closed things down. Matthew Sox came in for Kelly and pitched two innings only allowing one run on two hits. He struck out four.
 
The win moves Utah's record to 16-29 on the season and 6-19 in Pac-12 play.
 
Utah will go for the series win on Saturday with a 4 p.m. MT first pitch in Seattle.