Kaden Carpenter paces first start in Utah baseball's 13-5 win over Utah Valley

OREM — Ever since he won a 6A state title there with American Fork as a junior — one of two championships of a storied prep career, Kaden Carpenter has had a soft spot in his heart for UCCU Ballpark.

The University of Utah junior made a few more memories Tuesday night.

Carpenter went 2-for-5 with a double, a home run and two RBI as the Utes jumped out to a 9-0 lead early and cruised to a 13-5 win over in-state rival Utah Valley in front of 1,220 fans at UCCU Ballpark.

Carpenter, Core Jackson and Jake Long each smacked a home run for the Utes (17-19), who upended a two-game losing skid from dropping last week's Big 12 series at Baylor.

"This is a hitters' ballpark, as everyone knows, and it was just good to help the team out," Carpenter said. "Right now, with where we're at this season, we're just trying to win ball games and play good baseball. That's what we did tonight. Our offense did a great job, and Mateus Conaway came in and just shut it down."

Jackson went 2-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored, and Long was 3-for-4 with three runs including a solo shot in the ninth inning.

Carpenter had a happy homecoming early, highlighting a three-run first inning with a two-run homer to put Utah in front from the jump. Austin Roellig plated two more with a bases-loaded single before coming home on a wild pitch during a six-run second to stretch Utah's lead to 9-0.

"It was good in a lot of different aspects of the game," said Carpenter, a .291 hitter who smacked his third home run of the year. "The confidence that we had hitting the ball one through nine, knowing we were going to come in and barrel up baseballs and hit to all parts of the field — that's a positive thing. Hitting is contagious; we had good hitting lead to better hitting, and that helped the pitchers stay locked in, coming in with confidence, knowing that we had a good team."

Luke Iverson ripped a no-doubt home run over the right-field fence to cap a five-run second for the Wolverines. But Jackson slotted the Utes' second homer in the first three innings to give the visitors a lead that would hold up the rest of the way.

Santino Panaro put bat to ball for an RBI double, and added a run scored in the seventh inning to help Utah pull away for good and look toward a Big 12 home series with No. 23 Kansas beginning Friday at Smith's Ballpark (6 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).

Mateus Conaway pitched 5 2/3 innings with one hit allowed and six strikeouts to earn his third win of the season for Utah. The leftie graduate transfer from Whitman College moved to the bullpen for his final season of eligibility, where he's given up four runs on 11 hits with a 4.15 ERA in 8.2 innings prior to Tuesday night's finishing run.

"Just a tremendous effort by him," Utah coach Gary Henderson said. "It was his best outing as a Ute.

"He did a really nice job of getting ahead in the count, and then throwing his curveball in any count. ... He was throwing the curve for strikes. He did a really nice job."

CJ Colyer went 3-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI and a run scored to lead the Wolverines (25-17), who scored their five runs on seven hits one night after tying a season-high with four home runs in a 15-7 loss to BYU.

Utah Valley opened the season with a 24-11 record including a 9-2 start to WAC play after taking 2-of-3 from conference rival Grand Canyon for the first time since 2016 that snapped the Lopes' 18-series win streak in WAC play.

But the Wolverines dropped that same series finale, and back-to-back midweek losses to BYU highlighted a slump that included losses in six of seven games after Tuesday night.

Utah Valley will try to regroup with a three-game WAC series against California Baptist beginning Friday (6:05 p.m. MDT, ESPN+) at UCCU Ballpark.

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