BYU beat Saint Mary’s 14-3 in the Cougars’ final home game of the season to clinch the third seed in the upcoming WCC tournament.
“We were happy we clinched last night but we wanted the three seed,” third baseman Adam Law said. “We feel like we owe San Diego.”
The Cougars swept the series in dominant fashion, including two blowout wins. BYU took the first game 11-1 on Thursday behind a seven-run third inning and Cougars won game two on Friday 6-3 to clinch a tournament spot. Saturday’s victory was their sixth straight.
“We finished the series the right way,” head coach Mike Littlewood said. “We are playing well at the right time.”
The Cougars had 18 hits in the game and got a strong pitching performance from starter Adam Miller, who went five innings and gave up three runs.
The Cougars got off to a fast start in the first inning, as Jacob Hannemann led off with a single and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Adam Law.
The Gaels tied the game in the third when Darian Ramage led off with a triple and scored on a single by Connor Hornsby.
Anderson’s solo home run to lead off the bottom half of the third gave BYU the lead, 2-1. The Cougars would tack on one more in the inning when a single by Whitney scored Law, who had reached on a walk.
Saint Mary’s responded in the top of the fourth with two runs to tie the game at three on run scoring singles by Shawn O’Brien and Ramage.
The Cougars didn’t wait long to retake control of the game, putting up three runs in the bottom of the fourth highlighted by Whitney’s two run double to take a 6-3 lead.
BYU broke the game wide open with six runs in the fifth and taking a 12-3 lead. The Cougars had seven hits in the inning, including five run-scoring singles. Jaycob Brugman hit a two-run home run in the sixth for the final margin.
The game was stopped just before four o’clock after 8 ½ innings due to Saint Mary’s travel arrangements.
The Cougars will travel to Arizona State to take on the Sun Devils on Tuesday in a game that could prove important to an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. BYU begins WCC tournament play Thursday against San Diego in Stockton, Calif.
