BYU baseball snaps winning streak in 12-7 loss to Utah

Baseball can be a funny game.

BYU baseball came into its rivalry showdown against Utah Tuesday night riding an electric nine-game winning streak, while the lowly Utes stumbled into Provo having lost their past nine outings. Nine innings later, both streaks had ended, with the Cougars falling 12-7 to Utah as BYU’s bullpen was unable to contain a red-hot Ute offense.

To quote baseball hall of famer Yogi Berra, “who woulda thunk it?”

In front of a record 3,192 fans at Miller Park, Utah sprang to an early four-run lead, only for BYU to rally and pull ahead 5-4 on a Cole Gambill two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth.

BYU turned to the bullpen in the seventh, where Peyton Cole gave up three runs without recording an out as Utah took back the lead for good.

The Cougars threatened again in the seventh to score twice and put the tying run on base, but there would be no such comeback luck.

“On a midweek staff night where a lot of guys take the mound you just have to battle,” BYU interim head coach Trent Pratt said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make the big pitch or the big play when we needed to tonight.”

BYU trotted eight different pitchers to the mound, surrendering six walks and allowing eight earned runs (12 total). A typically crisp BYU defensive unit was uncharacteristically sloppy, committing two costly errors and looking far from its standard form aside from a pair of gold glove caliber plays from Mitch McIntyre in center field.

Gambill and Ryan Sepede drove in two runs each for the Cougars with Ozzie Pratt knocking a pair of base hits. BYU’s offense posted seven runs on 10 hits, but left eight runners on base and just didn’t have enough in the tank to keep up with the Utes.

BYU falls to 31-19 with the loss, welcoming LMU to Provo for a weekend series beginning Thursday to close out the regular season.