Baseball's Comeback Falls Short in Series Finale at Washington
SEATTLE – The Utah baseball team dropped the rubber match 6-5 to the Washington Huskies on Sunday.
After trailing 4-0, Utah stormed back and got within one run twice, but the Huskies held on for the series victory.
Utah had 13 hits with Chase Fernlund having three and Rykker Tom and Matt Richardson each having a pair of hits.
Heading to the fifth inning, Washington found itself leading 4-0 and the Utah bats hadn't woken up yet. That would change to start the fifth.
Brock Rudy got the Utes going hitting a solo home run in the fifth. Utah would go on to hit a total of three homers on the day.
After UW scored their fifth run, the Utes came back with their second home run of the game. Christopher Rowan, Jr. hit his team leading ninth home run of the year. He hit a two-run bomb getting the Utes within two at 5-3.
In the seventh, Utah generated another run with a couple of infield hits. Jaylon McLaughlin got on with a single and immediately stole second. A couple batters later, Kai Roberts also beat out an infield single and McLaughlin hustled home from second making the score 5-4. Roberts then stole second and after Rowan was intentionally walked, Tom came up with a clutch single to left field. Roberts tried to tie the game from second, but the Washington left fielder threw him out at home to end the inning and preserve the lead.
Washington added their sixth run in the bottom of the seventh putting Utah down two again. That didn't last long as Shea Kramer belted Utah's third homer of the afternoon on the first pitch in the eighth inning. Down one, Fernlund doubled with two outs, but Utah couldn't get him across the plate.
In the ninth, Richardson hit a leadoff single and advanced to second, but Utah couldn't advance him to tie the score.
David Watson got the start and pitched 4.2 innings giving up three earned runs.
Now, Utah will head home to host the USC Trojans in the final week of the season. The first game is Thursday, May 27 in Ogden, Utah at Lindquist Field.