Thursday’s Big 12 matchup between the Utes and Cougars at Smith’s Ballpark marked the first conference game between the two rivals since 2011 when both schools were members of the Mountain West.
“It’s great for the fans, great for baseball in the state of Utah, so that that’s real positive,” said Utah head coach Gary Henderson.
Both Utah and BYU have struggled so far this year in the Big 12. The Cougars are 12th in the Big 12 rankings with a 5-8 record and Utah currently sits in last with a 2-11 conference record. However, Thursday’s conference game delivered as BYU survived a late push from Utah and held on for a 9-8 road win.
The Cougars were first to strike and they hit hard as Cooper Vest hit a home run to get himself and Crew McChesney home. Brock Watkins then matched Vest with a home run of his own, which also got Bryker Hurdsman home and earned BYU a 4-0 lead.
The Utes scored twice in the bottom of the first, thanks to RBIs from Cameron Gurney and Jake Long, but it wasn’t enough to stay with the Cougars. Things got especially bad for Utah in the fourth as BYU ran up its lead.
A double from Luke Anderson and another base hit from Vest scored three runs for the Cougars, but a fielding error from Utah allowed two more runs to score for the 9-2 lead. Quickly the game was getting out of Utah’s hands.
The Utes needed an answer and it found one in the bottom of the fifth as it scored six runs. All six runs came while Utah had two outs.
“I thought our kids were plenty engaged, and did a great job of staying engaged and competed really well in the box,” Henderson said. “I thought the (pitching) effort out of (Ian) Culver and (Dylan) Gazaway out of the bullpen, four shutout innings was outstanding. Obviously, several quality at-bats to get us back in into where we could have won the ball game.”
Utah’s fifth inning run took advantage of BYU’s struggling pitchers. The Utes had six hitters get on base via HBP, three of which came in the fifth inning. HBPs and walks gave the Utes a few easy runs and allowed them to get back into Thursday’s game.
“We didn’t throw strikes,” said BYU head coach Trent Pratt. “I think we hit four guys, walked two-three guys, so when you do that you’re going to give up runs. So even on both sides, when they threw strikes we didn’t score as much and when we threw strikes, they didn’t score as much. That’s kind of the key is just you have to throw more strikes.”
Despite the disastrous fifth inning, BYU started to clean up its defense and kept more Utah hitters off base. Utah gave itself a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth as Jack Kleveno hit a single, but the Cougars fielded two quick outs and got a strikeout to secure the 9-8 win.
After the win, the message was clear from Pratt on what he needs to see from his team in the following two games of the series with Utah, more ...
