By MATTHEW C. STEVENS
The Cougar baseball season ended Thursday with a loss to No. 7 TCU in the MWC Tournament, but Andrew Law stole the show with a triple play in BYU’s 8-2 victory over SDSU earlier in the day
Law’s triple play is only the fourth in BYU history. The play occurred in the seventh inning with the bases loaded.
“The ball came off the bat and didn’t drift as far as I thought when I camped under it,” Law said in a news release. “I knew then we had one out and I looked to see a bunch of guys around second. I’ve played college
baseball for five years and always wanted to do something funky if I could.”
On the play, Law positioned himself under shallow fly ball, which was ruled as an out with the infield fly rule, but lost the ball as it drifted on him. Seeing the Aztec runners trying to advance, Law picked up the ball and tagged Aztec Cody Smith before he could return to second base, and finally ran down Pat Colwell who tried to advance but then retreated back to first base. The score was 7-1 when Law made the play, squelching the impending SDSU rally.
This is not the first triple play Law has been involved in. In 2009, he was part of a 5-4-3 triple play against New Mexico in Provo.
BYU finished the season with a 31-27 record.
“I am disappointed our season is over,” said BYU coach Vance Law in a news release. “We had high aspirations.”
BYU lost Thursday’s nightcap to TCU 12-5, ending the Cougars’ season.
“We knew we could beat SDSU and UNLV. It was tough losing to TCU and knowing that we were two outs away from beating the tournament champions New Mexico,” pitcher Matthew Neil said. “We were good enough to win the whole thing.”
TCU took an early lead, and despite many comeback attempts, the Cougars fell short.
“When TCU took a 3-0 lead, the wind was taken out of our sails and we had to play catch up,” Law said.
The loss to TCU marks the end of a 12-year partnership with the Mountain West Conference. The baseball team, along with many other sports, move onto the West Coast Conference next year.
The team loses seven seniors from this year.
