Box Score
OREM, Utah --- Portland starter Scott Burris and three relievers combined to hold Utah Valley to just one run as the Pilots defeated the Wolverines 3-1 to claim the three-game non-conference baseball series at Brent Brown Ballpark on Saturday afternoon. The Pilots took Friday’s game 10-4 after dropping the opener in extra innings on Thursday.
Portland improves to 12-6 on the season, while Utah Valley drops to 5-8.
Burris (1-1) notches his first win of the season and was on-point during 6.0 innings of work. The junior lefty scattered seven hits, allowed a run, struck out two and walked just one.
Reliever Owen Jones took over where Burris left off, striking out three during 1.2 hitless innings. After Ed Wakefield walked the only hitter he faced, UP closer Chris Dennis came in to pick up his fifth save of the season. Dennis struck out two and allowed only one hitter to reach base in 1.1 innings.
Sophomore DH Beau Fraser, who knocked in nine runs and was 6-for-10 during his stay in Utah, had two more hits and two more RBI’s on Saturday. One of his RBI’s came during a two-run first as the Pilots took the early lead. Senior INF C.J. Cullen knocked in the first run with a single to center field that scored junior OF Craig Smith, who had doubled. Cullen then advanced to second base on a wild pitch before scoring on a Fraser single.
Smith scored UP’s third run in the sixth inning when he crossed the plate on another base hit by Fraser. Smith had led off the inning with a triple.
Utah Valley’s lone run came in the bottom of the first.
Zane Gray (1-3) allowed all three Portland runs and is saddled with the loss. He allowed six hits in 5.1 innings. Reliever Craig Brimhall held the Pilots scoreless during the game’s final 3.2 innings.
UVU out-hit UP 9-7.
The Pilots next return home for a three-game series against Southern Utah next weekend at Joe Etzel Field. Friday’s series opener is set for 3:00 p.m. UP then hosts Oregon State on March 30 before opening West Coast Conference play at Santa Clara the following weekend.
