UNLV's Peters & Utah's Kuroczko Advance Their Teams On Day One

The Mountain West Conference Championship began with a solid bang on Tuesday May 25th. It was a beautiful day to for two matches complete with traditional umpire heckling, pitch by pitch disputes of balls and strikes, and the first bracket adjustments of the tournament. Hosted by San Diego State at Tony Gwynn Stadium, the hometown breeze pushed the flags from left to right and if you closed your eyes it was not difficult to imagine the calming sensation stemming from Ocean Beach only a few miles away. The first game was played by UNLV and BYU. UNLV was the visiting team and quickly touched the scoreboard in the very first inning. Hunter Beaty pulled a single into right field. The following hitter was the hot hitting Jarred Frierson who promptly banged out another single. With runners on the corners, Drew Beuerlein grounded into a 4-3 double play that drove in Beaty. The biggest story of the game came from UNLV’s right handed sophomore Tanner Peters. He found himself in some trouble in the first inning by giving up three hits that produced one run. After that it was all Peters. He finished the game pitching 7 full innings, giving up 6 hits, 1 run, 1 lonely walk, and struck out 9 BYU batters. Those impressive strike outs that Peters showcased should not come as a surprise. During the season he led the conference with 110 and it also tied him 20th in the entire division. Peters looked composed, comfortable, and determined to give his team a victory in this first game. The victory is just what he took as the UNLV Rebels completely pounded on BYU’s Chris Capper.

The offense was charged by the bat of Jarred Frierson. He went 4 for 4 on the day, including a double off the right field wall in the eighth inning, an RBI, and scored 3 runs. It seemed like Capper had no chance of retiring an impenetrable Frierson who has been hitting very well the entire season with a batting average of .360. There was Clutch hitting from a solid looking freshman named Brandon Bayardi. In the third inning with his team up by only a run, there were two runners on, he took a deep breath and went the other way with a big time base hit that drove in a run. He finished the game going to 2 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. During the season, Bayardi put on a great show by hitting .356 and clobbering 9 homeruns which ranked 2nd on the team. In relief, UNLV sent up another freshman named Brady Zuniga to toss the final two innings. He allowed 2 hits and closed up shop on a 9 to 1 UNLV victory of BYU in the first game of the conference and will face a tough New Mexico team on day 2 of the Conference Championships. The second game featured a battled between San Diego State and Utah. It seemed like San Diego State’s ace Addison Reed had the game rolling his way in the first 3 innings. He gave up couple of harmless hits and struck out 4 Utah hitters.

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Meanwhile, Utah’s Rick Anton struggled in his first inning. Anton walked the first hitter he faced, and after an error, and an infield hit he was down by a run. In the second inning there were two more infield hits against him, a well executed sacrifice bunt, and RBI base hit into left field by Jamal Torres. San Diego State was up 2 to 1 entering the 4th inning when the sudden strings of strong echoing Utah bats were launched into action. The campaign was sparked by Utah’s Nick Kuoczko’s (5 for 5 & 5 RBI’s on the day) double down the right field line that was called fair. It was such a close call that the entire stadium was in an uproar about the call and Tony Gwynn himself took the slow and deliberate walk towards the 1 st base umpire. There were no instant replays to watch, and there was no hope that the call would be retracted. Still, the legendary Gwynn shook his head and took his disappointing walk back to the dugout. That disputable call from the umpire changed the entire games momentum, and Utah took advantage of the inch or two that separated a foul ball from a fair ball. The Utah Utes batted around, and after an error, a misplay by the infield, and series of key hits, Utah scored 7 runs and were now up 7 to 2. At this time is when Rick Anton began to settle down for Utah. He gave up a couple of hits between the 3rd and 4th and caught the menacing Brandon Meredith looking to end the latter. In the 5 th inning, Anton gave up a hit to a recharged Cory Vaughn who stretched it into a double in hopes of rallying the troops. He scored only on an error later in the inning but the attack stopped there.

There was another attempt to rally by San Diego State in the 6th inning. Anton gave up a walk, a base hit, and a double that drove in two runs until being pulled from the game. Freshman Tyler Wagner came in to relieve the swelling bruises, he struggled with a couple of walks but then settled into a groove and struck out 5 hitters in his 3.2 innings of work. Despite the late rally by San Diego State, the Utah Utes held on to win their first game of the tournament by the score of 12 to 6. The Utes committed 4 errors in the process, but move on to face a very powerful TCU baseball team that is stacked with strong pitching. The tournament continues, and the brackets get moved around as we enter day two.

By: Adrian Nevarez
DFN Sports Staff Writer