By BRENDAN BURKE
Provo boasted some beautiful weather and good baseball Tuesday as BYU beat both the University of Cal-State San Bernadino 18-6 and the University of Southern Colorado 14-6 in a split doubleheader at Cougar Field.
Behind the impressive hitting of sophomore outfielders Troy McNaughton and Spencer Oborn, and senior shortstop Troy Farnsworth, the Cougars rebounded from two weekend home losses to Texas Christian University.
McNaughton hit three home runs, including a third-inning grand slam, in the Cal-State San Bernadino game.
“I’ve never even hit two home runs in a single game, so I’m really happy,” said McNaughton, who has 10 home runs this season.
Cougar pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (3-2) got the win, striking out four Coyotes in six innings. Marc Kenner pitched one shutout inning in relief.
Oborn hit another grand slam for the Cougars in the seventh inning.
Several Cougars collected RBIs in the first game, including McNaughton with eight, Oborn five and Farnsworth three.
BYU tallied 21 hits for the game, with McNaughton and junior secondbaseman Ryan Pond getting four hits apiece.
The game ended after the bottom of the seventh inning with BYU ahead 12 runs.
Farnsworth hit solo homers in the first and fourth innings against the Southern Colorado Thunderwolves in the nightcap.
USC first baseman Kurt Bloomer answered back with a pair of three-run homers in the third and ninth innings.
BYU’s Todd Crump pitched five strong innings to get his fifth win of the season. The Cougars also got relief help from Kenner and Jeremy Thomas.
Cougar RBIs in the second game came from Farnsworth with three, rightfielder Mark Smith, Oborn and Pond each with two.
Farnsworth and Oborn led BYU with four hits apiece. The Cougars notched 20 hits while USC tallied 15.
McNaughton said there was a difference between yesterday’s games and the TCU games. “We hit better today, and those games against TCU were a bit bigger,” he said. “It was tough to lose those last two, but we are ready to win some more games.”
The Cougars moved to 16-11 overall with the pair of wins. They host the same two teams today at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. San Bernadino is 14-7 and Southern Colorado has a 16-19 record.
