Jeff Barker had nine strikeouts as he threw a complete game, leading the Cougars to a 3-2 victory over the Lions.
BYU (24-17, 10-7 WCC) took over third place in the WCC with the win, jumping percentage points ahead of fourth place San Diego. LMU (21-25, 9-11) fell two and a half games out of fourth place.
Barker improved his record to 4-3 on the season. He got better as the game wore on, striking out six of his nine in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. Barker received plenty of help from a Cougar defense that made several key plays throughout the game.
Trace Hansen’s sacrifice fly in the third scored Bo Hernandez to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Hayden Nielsen scored on Adam Law’s two-out, RBI single in the fifth inning, followed by Jacob Hanneman scoring on a wild pitch to give the Cougars a 3-1 lead.
The Lions got a solid outing from their starting pitcher, Aaron Griffin. He gave up just three runs in 7 2/3 innings while striking out nine. Matt Lowenstein had two hits for the Lions. David Edwards and Zac Fujimoto both had run-scoring singles.
BYU looks for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 p.m. PDT with Adam Miller (3-6, 5.34) taking the mound for the Cougars in the series finale.
The game will be broadcast on KOVO Radio 960 AM.
