OREM, Utah - April 20 - Southern Utah baseball scored six runs in the sixth and five runs in the seventh to propel the team to a 12-11 victory over the Utah Valley Wolverines on Monday night.  The victory moves the Thunderbirds to 20-15 on the year with UVU dropping to 11-28.

Utah Valley jumped on the Thunderbirds early with four runs in the bottom of the first and another run in the bottom of the third to take an early 5-0 lead.  Southern Utah chipped into the lead with an RBI single by Chester Wilson in the fifth inning, but another three runs by UVU in the bottom half of the inning kept the home team ahead with an 8-1 lead.

Six runs for the Thunderbirds in the top of the sixth inning helped the team to inch to within one run.  Several of the runs scored as Utah Valley shuffled pitchers with Kole Mickolio coming on in relief of starter Jory Jensen.  Mickolio came on in the frame with one out and proceeded to surrender five hits and one walk with the Thunderbirds scoring five of their six runs over that span.

With men on the corners, Utah Valley went to the bullpen again with Riley Gordon replacing Mickolio, but back-to-back walks before the final out of the inning scored another run for the T-Birds with Colby Ford earning the easy RBI.  Jake Menzo came on to replace Gordon following the walks to induce the inning-ending fly ball to left field.

Southern Utah's offense was not finished with the six runs in the sixth, scoring five more off Menzo in the top of the seventh to take a 12-8 lead.  The frame included home runs by Nick Freitas, Bucky Aona and Dalen Isom with all five runs scoring on the big flies.

The Wolverines made a late push in the bottom of the ninth inning with a two-out three-run home run off the bat of Jake Rickenbach, but Kyle Melling came on in relief of Keli'i Zablan to record the final out of the game and his first save of the year.

Zablan earned the victory after throwing 3.2 innings in relief of stater Steve Johnson.  Zablan gave up his first earned runs of the season (three) on four hits and one walk while compiling two strikeouts.  UVU's Jake Menzo was given the loss after allowing five runs (all earned) on four hits and one walk with one strikeout.

The two teams will wrap up the season series when the players take to Brent Brown Ballpark again tomorrow night.  First pitch for that game is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.