Brennon Anderson congratulates a teammate earlier this season. BYU baseball won just one game over CSU Bakersfield. (BYU Photo)
The BYU baseball team went 1-2 against CSU Bakersfield this weekend.
The Cougars outscored the Roadrunners 19-14 in the three games, but were unable to score at the right times to come away with three victories.
After the road trip the Cougars fall to 4-6 on the season. All six losses have been by two or fewer runs.
The Roadrunners beat the Cougars 5-4 in game one and were up 4-0 after five innings.
'This is becoming Groundhog Day and it’s time for the guys who are supposed to be our guys to step up and get things done,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said after losing the first game.
BYU's comeback bid fell short in the top of the ninth as David Clawson grounded out to end the game.
Game two was by far the Cougars best performance on the weekend, with the Cougars winning 10-2.
The victory was highlighted by a strong pitching performance from Brady Corless and an impressive day at the plate for Brock Hale.
Corless pitched the first 5.2 innings of the game and gave up just four hits.
'That start by Brady was just what this team needed,” Littlewood said. “He was dominant for 5 2/3 innings and gave our offense a chance to get rolling. We had great at bats throughout the lineup but Brock (Hale) really stepped up big for us tonight. We were pretty solid in all aspects of the game tonight.”
Hale went 3-for-5 from the plate and hit a grand slam in the sixth inning to push the Cougars lead to 7-1.
The final game in the series was much like the first, CSU Bakersfield jumped to an early lead of 7-0 by the end of the third inning.
“We let the game get away from us in the third inning by Kendall's (Motes) inability to command the zone. Our relievers who came in just couldn't stop the bleeding,” said Littlewood.
The Cougars were down 7-3 in the ninth inning, but with two outs Daniel Schneemann singled to left field driving in Kyle Dean. The next at-bat Nate Favero singled to right field driving in another run and cutting the lead to 7-5, but once again the Cougars were on the wrong end of a close game as Hale flied out leaving two on base.
The Cougars will open their home season at Miller Park against UC Santa Barbara on March 7 at 5:00 pm.