By Cory Edwards
Nate Fernley has done it again. First it was the regular season conference crown, then, this past weekend he led the BYU baseball team to a 4-3 victory in the Mountain West Conference tournament against San Diego State.
However, the road to the top did not come easy for the Cougars. After losing their second round game to the University of Utah, they found their backs against the wall in the double-elimination tournament
With the conference tournament crown on the line and a possible bid to the NCAA tournament, BYU was forced to win the next three consecutive tournament games to clinch the title. They did.
On Friday the Cougars beat UNLV 10-9 and New Mexico 12-7 to advance to the championship game against the San Diego State Aztecs, hosts of the tournament.
The championship game started out scary for Cougar fans who watched their team and ace pitcher Nate Fernley go down 3-0 after two innings. However, Fernley and the Cougs settled down and held the Aztec batters scoreless for the remainder of the nine innings.
In the top of the fourth with two outs, the Cougar offense began its rally. Michael Wirrick singled up the middle and after a SDSU error Wirrick scored and Kainoa Obrey safely reached first base. Seth King then ripped a single scoring Obrey.
The Cougars would tie the ballgame in the top of the seventh inning. Obrey led off the inning for BYU with a single which was followed by another Seth King single. With one out and runners on first and second base, Tim Law hit safely on an error by SDSU third baseman, Pilar Amaya. The error allowed Obrey to score again.
The Cougars could not further capitalize on the Aztec error, however. Lars Birkeland flied out to second base and Tyler Perry struck out, ending the Cougars'' seventh inning attack and leaving two men on base.
The winning run of the ballgame came the next inning in a sort of deja vu manner for the Cougars. Just like the previous inning, the Cougars had back-to-back singles by Shane Belliston and Michael Wirrick, giving the Cougars one out with runners on first and second base. After Obrey struck out, Shane Belliston stole third base. Then, Seth King came to bat again for the Cougs and, just as he did in his previous two at-bats, King singled to center field and knocked in Belliston.
That was all the Cougars needed to 4-3. Of the four runs BYU scored, only the final run scored by Belliston was earned; the other three runs came from SDSU errors.
In this short game, only two hours and 13 minutes, Seth King went 3-for-4 to lead the Cougars who never hit anything more than a single. BYU finished the season winning six of seven games against SDSU.
Nate Fernley improved his record to 16-2 and was named tournament MVP. He was joined by three teammates who made the All-Tournament Team-Kainoa Obrey, Doug Jackson and Seth King.
Next up for BYU: the NCAA tournament.