BYU baseball takes the series over Loyola Marymount University

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Right-handed pitcher Easton Walker delivers a pitch in the game against UVU. (Natalie Stoker)

The BYU baseball team took two out of three games against Loyola Marymount University, improving their overall record to 20-3.

The series began on Thursday, March 24 with a 4-1 BYU victory behind right-handed pitcher Michael Rucker’s complete game. Rucker had seven strikeouts and gave up only three hits. He moved to 5-0 on the season.

“It’s nice to have a guy on the mound that when you call a pitch and a location, you know he’s going to hit that spot,” said head coach Mike Littlewood.

Freshman right fielder Keaton Kringlen went 2-3 and had the game-winning RBI for the Cougars.

“Our approach was excellent on the offensive side,” Littlewood said. “That’s how we needed to open this series.”

The series continued on Friday as the LMU Lions were able to defeat the Cougars 10-5.

“We started off poorly with our pitching performance,” Littlewood said. “We gave up 10 free bases with walks, hit batsmen and errors. You just aren’t going to win like that.”

Designated hitter Colton Shaver went 2-3 with a two-run homer and his first BYU career triple in the loss.

The Cougars got back on track and took the series with a 7-4 win on Saturday.

“Resiliency, that was the hallmark of the day, being resilient,” Littlewood said.

BYU’s seven runs came from eight hits and seven RBIs. Catcher Bronson Larsen had two RBIs in the win.

“One thing that we do really well is we just have good at-bats,” Littlewood said. “Quality at-bats were the key.”

Right-handed pitcher Easton Walker recorded his first win of the season for the Cougars.

“Knowing if we can just give up one or two runs at the most and our offense will come up and put together productive at-bats is a lot of relief on all of our pitching staff,” Walker said. “We know that we’ll always have a fighting chance.”

The Cougars moved to 20-3 on the year with the series win.

“You wanna win every game but two out of three against a good team is where you want to be,” Littlewood said.

The game was the last of BYU’s 12-game home stand.

The team will travel to Portland, Oregon to take on the University of Portland in a three-game series beginning Thursday, March 31.

 

 

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