Storm double up on Urban Knights

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SAINT GEORGE – Returning home for the first time since their Hawaiian road trip, Mike Dedrick (Cedar City, UT/Canyon View) threw seven shutout innings in game one and the Dixie State offense knocked around Academy of Art ace Nate Gercken to earn a doubleheader sweep over the Urban Knights on Friday at Bruce Hurst Field, 6-2 and 5-2.

The Red Storm outhit ART U 22-9 over the two games to earn their third consecutive win. DSU improved to 14-6-1 and 7-5-1 in the PacWest.

Dedrick fanned six batters with scattering only four hits for his fourth win of the year. Consequently, the senior right-hander beat the Urban Knights one year to the day at Hurst Field for a 4-1 record in 2012.

Dixie State scored a pair of unearned runs off ART U hurler Aaron Garabedian. Garrett Nash (Draper, UT/Jordan) led off the bottom of the first with a single and moved to third on a pair of throwing errors during the relay. Colton Yack (South Jordan, UT/Bingham) bunted his first pitch for an infield single to first base, plating Nash for a 1-0 lead.

Later, Jordan Hanley (Las Vegas. NV/Bonanza) reached safely on an error in the sixth. With two out, Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) doubled inside the left field line for the 2-0 advantage. Garabedian took the loss despite holding DSU to five hits over six innings.

Mitch Manning (Kaysville, UT/Davis) broke open game one with a bases clearing double in the seventh inning. Ryan Wescott (Glendale, AZ/Cactus) added an RBI single in the eighth.

Josh Mooney (American Fork, UT/American Fork) shut down an Urban Knight rally in the final frame by striking out his lone batter, Tino Leite, for his first season and career save.

In game two, two runs in the third inning and three more in the following frame supported an up and down outing from senior Sam Friend (Las Vegas, NV/Centennial). RBI hits in the Storm third came from Yack with a two-out single and Hanley with a double. Five consecutive singles from the bottom half of the lineup plated a trio of tallies.

Friend walked four over the first two frames, bounced back to retire seven in a row including five consecutive strikeouts, and struggled with control to load the bags in the Academy fifth before bowing out after 4.1 innings. Despite walking seven, Friend struck out seven and allowed just one run on one hit to improve to 4-1.

Leading by three entering the final frame, Mooney loaded the bags and put the potential tying run on base with one out. Working out of the jam, Mooney struck out the final two batters for his second save on the day.

Gercken surrendered all five DSU runs on 10 hits in the losing effort. The Urban Knights fell to 2-19 on the year and 1-11 in the PWC.

The final two games of the weekend set are Saturday beginning at an earlier start time, 11 a.m. MDT.

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