University of Washington
32-21, 17-13
Utah
25-27, 19-11
Huskies Denied Pac-12 Title In Utah, Lose 21-7 To Utes
May 29, 2016 | Baseball
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah batted around and scored five runs in four different innings to cruise to a 21-7 regular-season ending win over Washington in a winner-take-all game Sunday at Smith's Ballpark.
The Utes (25-27, 19-11 Pac-12) clinched sole-possession of its first conference title in any men's sport since joining the Pac-12 in 2011-12. The win gave Utah the Pac-12's automatic NCAA bid and denied the Huskies of a share of their first conference title since 1998.
“It obviously wasn't our day,” said Huskies' seventh-year Coach Lindsay Meggs following his team's most lopsided loss of the season. “Give them credit. They played about as well as anyone can play over the last 18 innings.
“I feel for our guys. This isn't indicative of who we are. It just imploded on us early in the game and we couldn't get it stopped.”
Washington (32-21, 17-13) ended the regular season in no worse than second place and will now have to wait to hear its NCAA fate on Monday at 9:00 a.m. PT on ESPNU.
“I'm looking forward to tomorrow,” said Meggs. “I think we get to play some more. Once we get this out of our system, we'll start over again and try to get to our next goal, which is to win a regional.”
The game got off to a rocky start for the visiting Huskies as Utah sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning and took an early 5-0 lead. UW starter Ryan Schmitten (1-4) allowed back-to-back singles to start the game and then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed DaShawn Keirsey Jr. to score and make it 1-0.
With two outs in the inning, Schmitten hit a wild spell. He walked Hunter Simmons and hit Andre Jackson to load the bases. Right fielder Josh Rose made him pay with a bases-clearing double to give the Utes the 4-0 lead. Catcher AJ Young followed with a single that scored Rose and sent Schmitten to the bench.
Alex Nesbitt came in and recorded the final out, but the damage had been done. It was the fifth time this season that a Husky starter had failed to make it out of the first inning with UW going 3-1 in the previous four outings.
UW began the processes of trying to chip away immediately in the second inning. First baseman John Naff lead off with a triple into the right-center gap and MJ Hubbs followed with a single that scored Naff to make the score 5-1.
But Utah put the game out of reach in the third by scoring five more runs and sending nine batters to the plate for the second time. Young had a bases-loaded, two-run single, Cody Scaggari knocked in another run with a RBI single and two more scored when Keirsey Jr. hit a ball to shortstop AJ Graffanino that he could not handle for an error.
Trailing 10-1 in the fourth, Chris Baker doubled and eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Hubbs to make the score 10-2. But, Utah got the run back in the sixth on a Scaggari solo home run to left field.
Utah piled on five more runs in the seventh to take a 16-2 lead. They sent 10 batters to the plate and had just two hits, but took advantage of five walks, a hit by pitch and UW error in the inning.
Washington scored three times in the eighth to show they were not going to roll over. Naff and Willie MacIver each drove in a run with singles and Josh Cushing picked up a RBI on a fielder's choice.
Utah starter Josh Lapiana (4-5) allowed 11 hits and five runs, but went 7 1/3 innings to pick up the win for the Utes.
Utah put another five-spot up in the eighth inning to get to 21 runs, but the Huskies didn't go quietly in the ninth, scoring a pair of runs on a Nyles Nygaard two-run single with two outs to make the final score 21-7.
Washington pounded out 14 hits, just two less than Utah. Jordan (3 for 4) had a team high three. Hubbs, Naff and Baker each had two hits.
The Huskies finished second in the conference two seasons ago in 2014, the last time that they earned a NCAA berth. They are hoping to earn their 10th bid in school history.
Utah 21 (24-27, 18-11), No. 15 Washington 7 (32-20, 17-12)
WASH 010 100 032 –- 7 14 2
UTAH 505 001 55x –- 21 16 0
LOB: UW 7, UTAH 7. Ryan Schmitten, Alex Nesbitt (1), Greg Minier (3), Westin Wuethrich (6), Channing Nesbitt (7), Alex Hardy (7), Henry Baker (8), Lance Berringer (8) and Joey Morgan; Josh Lapiana, Nolan Stouder (8) and AJ Young. W – Lapaina (4-5). L – Schmitten (1-4). SV – none. HR – Cody Scaggari (4). 3B – UW, John Naff. 2B – UW, Chris Baker, Gage Matuszak; UTAH, Josh Rose, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. Time – 3:41. Attendance – 6,071.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lapiana, Josh (4-5)
L: Schmitten, Ryan (1-4)
Batting:
2B: Matuszak, Gage 1 ; Baker, Chris 1
3B: Naff, John 1
RBI: Naff, John 1 ; Nygaard, Nyles 2 ; Hubbs, MJ 2 ; MacIver, Willie 1 ; Cushing, Josh 1
SF: Hubbs, MJ 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jordan, Levi 1 ; Matuszak, Gage 1 ; Baker, Chris 2 ; Naff, John 2 ; Stephan, Rex 1
Batting:
2B: Keirsey Jr., DaShawn 1 ; Rose, Josh 1 ; Davis, Kody 1
HR: Scaggari, Cody 1
RBI: Keirsey Jr., DaShawn 3 ; Scaggari, Cody 2 ; Carroll, Dallas 1 ; Marruffo, Kellen 1 ; Schuman, Max 1 ; Simmons, Hunter 1 ; Jackson, Andre 1 ; Rose, Josh 4 ; Young, AJ 3 ; Davis, Kody 3
SH: Scaggari, Cody 1 ; Jackson, Andre 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Keirsey Jr., DaShawn 2 ; Scaggari, Cody 3 ; Marruffo, Kellen 1 ; Simmons, Hunter 3 ; Jackson, Andre 3 ; Rose, Josh 4 ; Young, AJ 2 ; Davis, Kody 3
HBP: Keirsey Jr., DaShawn 1 ; Schuman, Max 1 ; Jackson, Andre 1 ; Davis, Kody 1
