The BYU baseball team swung a hot bat against Utah Valley University to win 17-6 on Tuesday night in Orem.
The Cougars are now 32-13 for the season with a 13-8 conference record. This win helps the team build momentum heading into their weekend series with San Francisco.
“I thought our approach was really good today,” head coach Mike Littlewood said. “We go back to that very simple thing of swinging at strikes and watching balls. The guys felt better at the plate, it was a frustrating week at Pepperdine and today it was nice to see that our guys can still hit.”
The Cougars scored three runs in the first inning and extended their lead to five in the fifth inning, all while keeping the Wolverines off the board. It wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth inning when Utah Valley hit a RBI single that finally broke the shutout. Then the Wolverines scored two more in the bottom of the sixth.
The Cougars had an explosive seventh inning that started with a Colton Shaver walk and Daniel Schneeman single. Bronson Anderson hit a RBI single, then Brennon Lund hit a three-run triple. Hayden Nielsen drove in a run and Tanner Chauncey followed it up with a double. With Chauncey on second base, Eric Urry ripped a deep two-run homer, extending the lead to 13-3.
Shaver gave the Wolverines something to remember in his final at bat by hitting the ball over three fences and out of the ball park for a solo home run in the top of the ninth. Both teams scored a couple more runs, but BYU came away with the 17-6 victory over the Wolverines.
“It was nice to have a game where we got 19 hits, so that was nice,” Lund said. “We were all a little more relaxed than normal, we just tried to calm down and relax.”
The Cougars travel to San Francisco this Thursday to play a three-game series against the University of San Francisco. You can follow them on ESPN 960 or BYU Radio Sirius XM 143. Thursday and Friday’s games start at 3 p.m. PDM, and 1 p.m. PDM on Saturday.
