BYU Baseball wins seventh straight, looks forward to WCC tourney

273

TEMPE, Ariz.- BYU Baseball ended the regular season on a high note with an 8-3 victory over No. 13 Arizona State Tuesday night.

The Cougars (31-19, 15-9 WCC) won their seventh straight game and won their fifth game over a ranked opponent on the season. BYU greatly improved its chances concerning an NCAA tournament berth.

Adam Law provided early offense with a three-run home run in the third to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead. Starting pitcher Mark Anderson threw five innings and gave up just one hit.

Mark Anderson pitches (Photo by Elliott Miller)
Mark Anderson threw five innings in BYU’s win against Arizona State. (Photo by Elliott Miller)

“Mark Anderson came out on a mission tonight,” BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said.

The Cougars got two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings, including a two-run double from James Lengal. The Sun Devils’ only runs came on back-to-back homers in the seventh. BYU tacked on one more run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Kelton Caldwell to provide the final margin of 8-3.

The win keeps the momentum alive heading into the WCC tournament this weekend.

“It puts an exclamation mark on the finish of our regular season,” Littlewood said. “This team feels like we can beat anybody, anywhere.”

The Cougars travel to Stockton, Calif. to take on San Diego in Thursday night in their first game of the WCC tournament. If they win, they will play Friday evening against the winner of the other first round game between No. 1 seed Gonzaga and No. 4 seed San Francisco. Should they lose, they will play the loser Friday afternoon. The championship will be Saturday night at 7 p.m. PST and will be televised on ESPNU.

San Diego swept BYU in San Diego this season, with two of the three victories coming via a walk-off homer run by star Kris Bryant. The Cougars held a lead late in the other game of the series.

Thursday’s game will begin at 7 p.m. PST and will be broadcast on KOVO Radio 960 AM and can be followed on BYUCougars.com.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email