The BYU baseball team fed off of its confidence from last night’s win, dominating Pacific for the second game of the series.
Junior Dillon Robinson had a great game, hitting all four times at bat with three RBI.
“As a team, we told ourselves that we were going to try to win every inning,” Robinson said. “ We’re not worrying about winning the game, we’re worrying about pitch by pitch… and that’s made all the difference.”
Junior Tyler Sullivan started the first inning strong for Pacific, doubling down left field. Sophomore J.P. Yakel sacrifice bunted to move Sullivan to third, and sophomore Gio Brusa doubled to cross Sullivan.
BYU had a strong first inning, scoring four runs. Freshman Brennon Lund and Robinson singled, and senior Brock Whitney hit a three-run homer.. Senior Kelton Caldwell doubled to left field and advanced to third with a pop fly from senior Bret Lopez. Junior Jarrett Jarvis singled to left field to cross Caldwell.
Sophomore J.J. Wagner singled, but the Tigers did not cross any runners in the second and the Cougars went to bat. Freshman CJ Latham doubled down center field and advanced to third on a fielding error. Robinson singled, but then reached second on a throwing error from the second baseman. Latham took advantage of the opportunity to score a run for the Cougars.
Pacific went three and out in the third, but returned the favor to BYU, catching a pop fly and executing a double play.
BYU’s pitcher, sophomore Kolton Mahoney, retired his third batter of the game in the fourth, and Pacific was unable to make a play. The crowd loudly cheered for the Cougars as Latham homered to center field, making the score 6-1. Robinson doubled to left center, but was left stranded with Whitney flying out and Caldwell striking out.
Mahoney retired two more in the fifth, and once again, Pacific was unable to score. The inning ended as Lopez lined out, Jarvis grounded out and sophomore Hayden Nielsen flied out.
The Tigers couldn’t score in the top of the sixth, but the Cougars had more luck, beginning the bottom of the sixth with Lund walking and stealing second. Robinson singled deep to center field, crossing Lund for a six-point lead.
Mahoney struck out his seventh batter during the seventh. The Tigers only made it to first base, but managed to keep the Cougars from scoring.
Pacific re-entered the game in the top of the eighth, scoring twice. Brusa hit a sacrifice fly to advance Sullivan to third and cross Yakel. Sullivan scored the next play with senior Erik Lockwood singling up the middle. Mahoney retired the final batter for a total of eight strikeouts.
In the bottom of the eighth, Lund walked, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Latham grounded out, but Lund took third. On the following play, Robinson hit a sacrifice pop fly and Lund scored. The Cougars didn’t stop there. Whitney singled up the middle, stole second, and then scored with a single from Caldwell to make the score 9-3.
The Tigers went three and out in the top of the ninth and ended the game with a final 9-3 margin.
