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By James Hernandez

The first place Coyotes traveled to Utah to face the Salt Lake City Bruins in hopes of putting even more distance between them and second place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

Long Beach State commit Aj Jones took the mound in search of his team leading ninth victory of 2016.

Jones was rock solid, scattering eleven hits over his six innings of work and allowing just two runs while striking out a pair. He was opposed by SLCC's Joe Barlow who continued to show his versatility, taking the mound for his fourth start of the season after being named first team all-SWAC in 2015 as a catcher.

CSN struck for all three of its runs in the top of the fourth inning highlighted by right fielder Jordan Hand's RBI single and catcher Drew Newson's RBI groundout. Bruin third baseman Trevor Peterson was responsible for both of Salt Lake's runs with RBI's in the third and seventh inning. Alec Hutt recorded his twelfth save of the year to preserve the 3-2 victory for his Coyotes. Jones earned his ninth win of the season for CSN and Joe Barlow took his second loss of the year for the Bruins.

Future San Diego State Aztec Gabe Gonzalez took the ball in game two looking to build upon a six strikeout, two hit performance last weekend versus USU-Eastern.

Salt Lake countered with its top arm, sophomore Lincoln Clayton who has paced the Bruins all season in innings pitched (60), strikeouts (58) and bating avg. against (.225).

Jordan Hand got the scoring started in the top of the first inning with a triple to left center field that plated Jarrell Latham. Hand would score one pitch later on a wild pitch uncorked by Clayton that reached the backstop. The lead for CSN would be short lived as Salt Lake would score the next five runs of the game and stake Lincoln to a 5-2 lead. Gonzalez was chased after just two innings of work; allowing six hits, two walks and five runs (2 earned).

Freshman lefty Ben Cutting pitched five innings of shutout relief that included four hits, five strikeouts and just two walks. Jarrell Latham would score CSN's third run of the game on a wild pitch, but it was too little too late as Isaac Evans shut the door on the Coyotes in the ninth, to earn his first save of the year. SLCC defeated CSN 5-3 in game two of the series. Lincoln Clayton struck out 10 Coyotes over his eight innings of work to earn his fourth win of the year and sophomore Gabe Gonzalez was saddled with his first loss of the 2016 season.

Game three of the weekend featured top MLB pitching prospect and future ASU Sun Devil Mikey York looking to extend his season best scoreless inning streak of 21.2 innings and lower his already microscopic E.R.A. of 1.54.

York didn't disappoint, tossing 4.1innings of shutout baseball, striking out four Bruins and running his scoreless innings streak to 26.

Salt Lake starter Jayden Hartle was up to the challenge of opposing York and matched him zero for zero, tossing six scoreless innings of his own to keep SLCC in the hunt for the victory. Jarrell Latham would score the first run of the game on a mishandled ball by left fielder Micquel Robinson to give his Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

Austin Ovard scored in the bottom of the seventh inning for SLCC to force extra innings, but a clutch two out single by Jarrett Perns in the top of the eighth scored Newson allowed the Coyotes to regain a 2-1 lead.

After Alec Hutt recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning the wheels officially came off for CSN. The final four batters of the game reached base for the Bruins, which included a two out fielding error by second baseman Dillon Johnson that led to the tying and winning runs crossing the plate for SLCC.

A dramatic extra innings affair ended with the Bruins snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, as the Bruins defeated the Coyotes for the second time in three games. Mitch Cavanaugh pitched one scoreless inning of relief to earn the victory for Salt Lake and Alec Hutt was tagged with his third loss of 2016.

The fourth game of the weekend was called due to inclement weather in the second inning.
   
Following a 1-2 weekend in Salt Lake our Coyotes are back home this weekend to host the CSI Golden Eagles (24-23 overall) (11-21 SWAC).

CSN will honor former student athletes with a welcome back BBQ on Saturday from 11:30AM-1PM.

For more information please log onto www.csncoyotes.com or follow us on Twitter @CSNCoyotes.