Junior Chalese Fankhauser hits a two-run homer Saturday against No. 15 UCLA in the Utes’ last game of the double-header. The Utes went on to win the second game 7-4.
Erin Burns / The Daily Utah Chronicle
For the first time since they joined the Pac-12, the Utes won a series over the weekend.
Utah lost to the UCLA Bruins 6-4 in the teams’ first contest Saturday but then won 7-4 in the nightcap and concluded the series with an impressive 8-3 victory Sunday. The weekend also marked the first time the Utes won consecutive conference games since joining the Pac-12.
Head coach Amy Hogue has stressed how important it is for Utah to limit multiple-run innings from opponents while scoring multiple runs itself. The Utes finally did that against the Bruins, as they produced multiple runs in multiple innings over the weekend.
“We got the lead early in the first game and again we talked about how one big inning does not win ball games for us,” Hogue said after Saturday’s doubleheader. “We talked about doing everything else the same way we did it in the first game but just put up an extra inning of big numbers and we did that.”
On Sunday, the big innings for Utah came in the second and fifth frames. For the game, nine different players combined for 14 hits, which was a season high in conference play.
Though infielder Kate Dickman went just 1-for-3 on Sunday, she was certainly the star in the two games on Saturday. The sophomore connected on two home runs and two triples while tallying six RBIs to help the Utes split the first two games of the series. One of her homers was of the inside-the-park variety.
“It felt great,” Dickman said of her performance Saturday. “I was just feeling good. I knew even if I wasn’t going to perform well, that my team was behind me. It is easy to go up to bat feeling loose because you know your team has your back even if you don’t perform your best.”
Up next for Utah are two games against Weber State University on Wednesday at home. After playing three consecutive series against Pac-12 teams, Dickman said the team is ready for a change of pace, but that the Utes still need to take the Wildcats seriously.
“If we keep playing the way we have been we definitely will [beat Weber State],” Dickman said. “But we have to make sure we keep playing our best, even though we may not be playing a team that is as good. If we take them lightly, anything can happen.”