Air Force baseball loses to Utah, 13-6

  • Published
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Utah banged out a season-high 20 hits and three home runs to down Air Force, 13-6, in a Mountain West Conference baseball game here April 2. The Falcons fall to 5-25 overall and 0-7 in the conference. Utah improves to 5-16, 2-5.

Utah starter Jason Price improved to 2-4 on the year, striking out 11 Falcon batters and allowing five runs in seven innings pitched. Air Force starter Mitch Brown fell to 0-3 on the year, allowing six runs, four earned, while fanning five in five innings pitched.

Three Utes had three hits with five more getting two. Jay Brossman hit his first home run of the season, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs, and Tyson Olson went 3-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs. Jared Pena hit his second homer of the year.

Air Force had 14 hits with Jason Brown leading the way by going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and an RBI. Josh Wolfram, Matt Musser and Colton Walter also had two hits a piece.

Utah went up 2-0 in the top of the first, scoring two runs off a costly throwing error by second baseman Walter. With two outs and a runner on first, Walter fielded a routine grounder but threw the ball into the Utah dugout allowing runners on second and third. Trevor Eastman then followed up with a single up the middle to score both runners.

The Falcons answered back with a run in the bottom of the inning highlighted by Musser's hit-and-run single. Josh Wolfram led off the inning by drawing a walk and drew the second baseman toward the bag on the attempt, allowing Musser to hit the ball in the hole. Nathan DeRohan then scored Wolfram from third in a sacrifice fly to center field. Musser, who made his varsity debut, also stole three bases and scored a run.

The Utah bats came alive in the fifth inning, scoring four runs on five hits to jump out to a 6-1 lead. The Falcons came right back with three runs in the bottom of the inning, getting a two-run homer from Nathan DeRohan and an RBI double from Jason Brown to make it a 6-4 game.

However, the Ute bats were too strong, scoring two runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and two in the eighth to pull further ahead. Air Force scored runs in the seventh and eighth.