David Edwards hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to give the LMU Lion’s a 2-1 victory, snapping BYU’s four game winning streak.
With the loss, the Cougars (24-18, 10-8 WCC) sit in fourth place in the WCC and a game behind San Diego for third. BYU is just a half-game ahead of Pepperdine in the race for the final WCC tournament spot. LMU (22-25, 10-11 WCC) sits 1 ½ games out of fourth.
Adam Miller threw six solid innings, giving up six hits and just two runs. Miller received little help from an offense that squandered scoring opportunities in the second, fourth and sixth innings, two of which ended in double-plays.
“Lack of execution on our part was probably the most disappointing thing,” head coach Mike Littlewood said. “It’s something we take pride in doing, but we weren’t able to get it done today.”
BYU took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Dakota Hernandez led off with a triple, then scored on a Hayden Nielsen RBI single.
Patrick McGrath gave up just one run over six innings for the Lions, who snapped a six–game losing streak.
BYU won the first two games of the series, giving them the overall series victory.
The Cougars took game one by a score of 8-3 on Thursday behind a complete game from Desmond Poulson (6-1) and a clutch RBI double by Brock Whitney. Jaycob Brugman contributed his ninth home run of the season and Jacob Hannemann had three hits and three runs scored. The Cougars totaled 18 hits as a team.
Jeff Barker also pitched a complete game for the Cougars in game two as BYU won 3-2 on Friday. Barker struck out nine batters and improved to 4-3 on the season. Trace Hansen’s sacrifice fly in the third scored Hernandez to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Nielsen scored on Adam Law’s two-out, RBI single in the fifth inning, followed by Hanneman scoring on a wild pitch to give the Cougars a 3-1 lead.
BYU will play at Utah on Tuesday in Salt Lake City at 6 p.m. MST. The game will be broadcast live over KOVO Radio 960 AM.
