By Brandon Judd
Whether it was at the plate, in the outfield, or on the mound, BYU senior Ryan Chambers came through strong for the Cougars on Thursday.
Chambers hit a home run and pitched the final two outs for the save as BYU held off San Diego State 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the MWC Baseball Championship at Franklin Covey Field.
?He does it all,? BYU coach Vance Law said. ?He?s a very good outfielder, and he swings the bat well. I should have recognized his talent on the mound a couple of years earlier.?
Chambers, who was named to the all-Mountain West Conference Baseball Team on Tuesday, put the Cougars (38-17-1) on the board first when he led off the bottom of the third with a blast over the wall in right field on a 3-2 count.
?I was looking for the fastball and connected with it pretty good,? Chambers said.
Later in the inning with two outs, shortstop Marcos Villezcas hit a double to left center, and designated hitter Apana Nakayama reached on a walk. Jeff Hiestand came up next and hit an RBI single to right, scoring Villezcas, after falling behind 1-2 in the count. Brandon Taylor followed with an RBI double to score Nakayama from second, giving BYU the early 3-0 lead.
Chambers came through again for the offense in the fourth inning. After doubling to left center, he was knocked in on a Sean McNaughton single.
?We had a couple clutch base hits,? Law said. ?We?ve done that all year. We don?t close out the inning just because it?s two outs.?
In the ninth inning, Chambers made his ninth trip to the mound for the Cougars this season to thwart an Aztec rally. After hitting pinch hitter Joseph Scaperotta on a 2-2 count to put men at first and second with one out, Chambers was in a jam with SDSU?s leading batter, Quintin Berry, coming to the plate. Berry cashed in on the opportunity, blasting a single to left to score teammate Tim O?Brien that put the score at 4-3.
But Chambers settled down, getting Brock Ungricht to fly out to right field and James Guerrero to ground out to end the game and pick up his third save of the season.
?I?m proud of the way our guys battled the entire nine innings,? Law said. ?San Diego State did, too. It was a good ball game. ? Those ones are tough ones to win and tough ones to lose.?
Starting pitcher Lance Beus also came up big for the Cougars during the tournament game, going 6 2/3 innings while striking out five and giving up just two earned runs.
?It?s crunch time now,? Beus said. ?You?ve got to go up there and throw 0?s [on the scoreboard].?
After falling behind 4-0, San Diego State (24-34) fought its way back into the game in the fifth inning. With Jordan Swaydan on second and Berry on first, Guerrero hit a two-RBI double down the left field line to narrow the gap in half.
From there, the pitchers would take over for both teams as the only run scored the rest of the game came on Berry?s RBI single in the ninth.
San Diego State coach Tony Gwynn said he was pleased with his team?s performance despite the loss.
?My guys battled hard today,? he said. ?We battled them there until the end, but fell just a little bit short.?
With the loss, the Aztecs fell into the losers bracket and played New Mexico late Thursday. Due to the Daily Universe?s press time, no score was available.
The Cougars now head to the MWC semifinals, where they will battle UNLV, who defeated Utah 5-3 in the other quarterfinal game Thursday. That game is slated to begin at 3 p.m. today. The winner will advance to the championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday, while the loser will have to fight through the losers bracket to make the championship game.
?Our ultimate goal is to go to regionals,? Beus said. ?This is a door we?ve got to go through to get there.?
