BYU baseball will travel to Los Angeles this weekend to face Loyola Marymount in a pivotal three game series.
The Cougars (22-17, 8-7 WCC) sit a half-game ahead of the Lions (21-23, 9-9 WCC) in the conference standings. Both teams are battling in a four-team race for the fourth and final WCC tournament spot.
BYU ace Desmond Poulson (5-1, 2.44) will take the mound Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. PDT, with Jeff Barker (3-3, 3.80) getting the start in Friday’s game at 3 p.m. PDT and Adam Miller (3-6, 5.34) finishing off the series on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PDT.
Jaycob Brugman leads the Cougar offense with eight home runs and 46 RBIs on the season. Speedy leadoff man Jacob Hannemann is hitting .344 and Adam Law leads the team with a .347 batting average. BYU is coming off a 15-7 victory at UVU, its highest scoring output of the season.
LMU is led by Tommy Cheek, batting .313 and Colton Plaia with a .303 batting average and 20 RBIs. The Lions have lost their last four games, including a three game sweep at Portland.
BYU sits a half-game behind San Diego, current occupant of fourth place in the WCC conference standings. LMU is one game out.
The series will be broadcast live on KOVO Radio 960 AM.
The Cougars will play at Utah next Tuesday before returning home to host San Francisco in a three-game series next weekend.