By BRENT JOHNSON
Brandon Taylor ensured BYU at least a No. 2 seed and first-round bye in the Mountain West Conference Tournament with a go-ahead, three-run home run in the ninth inning to push the Cougars to a 6-4 victory over San Diego State on Wednesday.
BYU improves to 36-16-1 (20-8, MWC) with the victory. The Cougars also move within a half-game of first-place UNLV. The Aztecs fell to 22-32 and 16-12 in MWC play.
SDSU started scoring in the first inning, getting two early runs and the lead. The Aztecs got some help from two Cougars’ errors that plated one unearned run.
San Diego State scored another unearned run in the fourth inning when Jordan Swaydan got to second base on a throwing error by BYU. He scored from third on a two-out RBI by James Guerrero.
Once again, the Cougars had trouble figuring out SDSU pitcher Alex Hinshaw. Last month, BYU lost to Hinshaw 10-4. Hinshaw pitched a complete game, striking out 12 Cougar batters. On Wednesday, Hinshaw only allowed five hits and no runs in seven innings.
Hinshaw left the game after seven and the Aztecs? shutout ended soon thereafter. Adrian Molina led off BYU’s side of the eighth with an opposite-field single. One batter later, Molina scored on a RBI single by Ben Saylor. Ryan Chambers followed two batters later with an RBI single of his own to cut the lead to 3-2. SDSU’s Dan Bruckart was able to get the next two Cougar batters out to preserve the lead.
The Aztecs added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a triple by Swaydan and a RBI single from Quintin Berry.
In the ninth, BYU got a one-out double from Apana Nakayama. Molina then walked to put the potential game-tying runner on base with only one out in the inning. That’s when Taylor came up big with his 20th home run to give the Cougars a 5-4 lead. The lead was BYU’s first of the game. Kory Knell added a towering homer in the inning for the Cougars.
BYU head coach Vance Law said the Cougars hit the ball well all night despite not scoring any runs until the eighth inning.
“We hit the ball hard the whole game,” Law said. “I just felt like it was a matter of time before some of the balls would fall in for us.”
