By Marc Buchanan
After the BYU baseball team won its sixth straight game by completing a sweep of the New Mexico State over the weekend, the Cougars now return home to face Colorado State-Pueblo today and tomorrow.
Going into the series with New Mexico State, BYU head coach Vance Law said the weekend would be huge for his team because the Aggies have a lot of depth and are a strong team.
?We need to continue to swing the bats well in order to have a chance against them,? Law said.
The Cougars did swing the bats well, especially in the final game of the series when they put 22 runs on the board and hit seven home runs of off Aggie pitching to win the game by a score of 22-8. One of those homers was a grand slam hit by Brandon Taylor, his fifth home run of the season.
Taylor said the team needed to sweep New Mexico State to keep their momentum going after going 3-4 from the plate in the first game of the series, which the Cougars won 5-3.
National player of the year candidate Ryan Chambers played well in Game 1 of the series, also going 3-4 on the day. Chambers cleaned up after hitting in the final insurance run in the eighth, driving in the first run of the game in the third inning and scoring the tying run on his third single in the seventh.
Game 2 of the series was a nail bitter as BYU came back from a 0-4 deficit. Cougars Ben Saylor and Apana Nakayama had big hits in the five-run ninth inning to help pull a 8-7 lead, and BYU continued to produce offensively toward a 11-7 win.
BYU will be looking to extend its winning streak today and tomorrow at Larry H. Miller field. They will face the Thunderwolves from CSU-Pueblo at 4 pm. Cougar second baseman Sean McNaughton said he is looking forward to playing in Provo.
?It?s exciting to have a homestand and play in front of your home fans,? he said.
