Northern Colorado Rallies to Edge Southern Utah
CEDAR CITY, Utah –March 15, Southern Utah dropped its fourth-consecutive home game on Thursday as the visiting Northern Colorado Bears rallied for a 3-2 win over the Thunderbirds. SUU tallied a pair of runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead but were unable to add another score after UNC went ahead in the top of the seventh. The loss drops Southern Utah to 2-14 on the year while Northern Colorado collect its third win in its last four outings to improve to 4-7.
“It seems that every time we take a step forward somewhere we take another step back in another area”, explained SUU head coach David Eldredge. “On Tuesday we were hitting the ball well, and tonight we had good pitching, but we just can’t get it put together. It’s frustrating.”
The visiting Bears tallied the first run of the game in the second inning when Casey Coy to deep right field allowing Adrian Schenk to score from first. Outram then recorded a strikeout and groundout to get out of the inning with the T-Birds trailing 1-0.
Southern Utah answered in with a pair of runs in the fourth to go up 2-1. Mitchell Kauweloa started the inning by popping a ball up in shallow center field, but the UNC second baseman lost the ball in the air allowing it to drop for an error and giving the Thunderbirds a leadoff runner. Justin Neuhart then drove a double to left center to drive in a run and later came around to score on an RBI from David Ricker.
The Thunderbirds held onto the advantage until the Bears rallied with two runs in the top of the seventh to go ahead 3-2. Dylan Banach and Taylor Anderson started the inning with back-to-back singles for UNC and then advanced on a successful sacrifice bunt off the bat of Jensen Park. A sacrifice fly from Ryan Yamane followed by an RBI for Adam Hilker helped the visitors claim a one-run lead.
SUU was able to put the tying run in scoring position three times in the late innings after Marcus Romero singled and reached second on a passed ball in seventh, Bryson Kenolio and Taggart Lunceford got on base in the eighth and Bo Cuthbertson drew a walk and stole second in the bottom of the ninth, but the Thunderbirds were unable to plate the tying run as they eventually took the 3-2 defeat.
UNC reliever Jess Amedee picked up his first win of the year after recording eight strikeouts over five shutout innings. SUU right-hander Kelsey Outram was solid in his start giving up just three runs, two of which were earned, while pitching into the eighth inning. Freshman Matt Nelson finished the game for the T-Birds, allowing just one hit over one and two-thirds scoreless innings.
Kenolio was 3-for-3 at the plate on the day for Southern Utah while Neuhart and Ricker each collected an RBI. Casey Coy went 2-4 while driving in a run to help the Bears to the win.
SUU and Northern Colorado will meet again on Friday at 3 p.m.
