Mason Strong's 2 homers lift Utah Valley to WAC tournament title, 1st NCAA regional in 9 years

OREM — With a 31-27 record and 13-11 mark in Western Athletic Conference play, Utah Valley's case for an NCAA regional bid probably wasn't as strong as many.

It was strong enough Saturday evening.

Mason Strong went 4-for-5 with two home runs, three RBIs and four runs scored, including a two-run shot in the top of the ninth, that lifted Utah Valley to its first WAC Tournament title in nine years 11-9 over Abilene Christian at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona.

The former top-rated player in Utah at Santa Clara by way of BYU and Oklahoma capped a run nine years in the making by clinching the Wolverines' first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament since the program's first entry in the Baton Rouge regional in 2016.

Not a bad first season for Nate Rasmussen, the Utah native who took over last year when Eddie Smith was named the head coach at Washington. And one of his earliest moves was call a pair of former Snow Canyon teammates, including the former 4A player of the year who had already told him "no" once in Strong.

"He's one of my favorite kids I've ever coached," Rasmussen said of Strong, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. "I called him twice in the portal; the first time, he said, I'm going to Oklahoma. The second time, he said 'I'm in.' And it's worked out for us."

No tampering here. But Strong told the ESPN+ broadcast that he, Frei and fellow Snow Canyon alum Carston Herman — the Utah Tech transfer who came on in relief Saturday — made a few phone calls to one another when they were in the transfer portal last summer.

"We called each other and said, 'let's go get this done,'" Strong said. "We all talked to Ras and said we believe in the program. It's really cool to have the opportunity to play with your best friends who you've known since you were six years old."

Picked to finish sixth in the WAC with a first-year head coach, the Wolverines clinched the No. 3 seed in the tournament before a four-game run at Hohokam that included Colton Kennedy and Cooper Littledike pitching the first combined no-hitter in WAC postseason history, a 9-1 upset of top-seeded Sacramento State on Friday.

A day later, it was the crew's battery mate with a .367 average who led the way with his 10th and 11th home runs of the year.

The last one was as important as any, sending home Frei with a shot over the left-field fence at the spring training home of the Oakland A's to give the third-seeded Wolverines the difference.

"I was just trying to stay loose and in the moment," Strong said of his game-winning homer. "We've been preparing all week, I was looking for a heater, and he gave it to me. I was just on time, and didn't miss it."

The second-seeded Wildcats led early, jumping out to a 4-1 lead on a sacrifice fly that scored Diego Cardenas from third.

But the Wolverines uncorked a five-run fifth that included Dominic Longo II's two-run homer, and a two-run shot from Jimmy De Anda flipped a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 advantage.

Utah Valley added two more in the sixth when Luke Iverson smacked an RBI single to right field, and CJ Colyer — whose ninth-inning, three-run blast lifted the Wolverines by ACU in Thursday's quarterfinals — scampered home on Iverson's stole base attempt moments later to stretch the advantage to 8-4.

Carston Herman scattered two hits with four strikeouts in three innings of relief before giving up four runs late, and Strong added a solo homer of his own to help the Wolverines stretch the lead to four runs after six innings.

Grant Watkins smacked his second home run of the afternoon, a three-run shot over the the center-field fence to pull the Wildcats within one, 9-8 in the bottom of the seventh.

ACU plated another with a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game, setting the stage of Strong's two-run shot in the top of the ninth that gave the Wolverines a two-run lead.

"We said we were playing with house money. We said that as a joke all week," Strong said. "A lot of people didn't believe in us, we started off the year hot, and then we went through a bit of a toll. But we didn't stop believing.

"We came in with house money this week, we got the job done, and now we're on to a regional."

Littledike earned the win to improve to 2-1 on the season, pitching the final 2 1/3 innings allowing one run on one hit with two walks to secure the victory.

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