BYU baseball completes series sweep over Santa Clara with 9-5 victory

BYU baseball kept its bats hot to rally for a 9-5 win over Santa Clara Saturday afternoon, earning a series sweep over the Broncos in the process.

Trailing 3-1 heading into the fourth inning, the Cougars clawed back for five runs over the next three frames to take the lead for good. BYU capitalized on a number of Bronco mistakes in the fifth, scoring on a balk and tallying another run later in the inning on a wild, two-error fielders choice produced by Ryan Sepede.

“We had to find a new way to win today,” head coach Mike Littlewood said. “I thought overall we took great at-bats.. we just kept grinding away.”

The Cougars enjoyed another solid bullpen outing, with Cy Nielson and Nate Dahle relieving starter Janzen Keisel to throw a combined three innings of scoreless ball with four strikeouts to keep the Broncos in check and allow BYU to take the lead.

Keisel was knocked out of the game after four innings, where he surrendered three runs on three extra base hits, including a pair of home runs from Efrain Manzo. The Broncos would score again in the eighth and ninth, but neither effort would be enough to catch up to the Cougars.

BYU padded its lead in the bottom of the eighth with an error-aided, three-run single to right field from Ryan Sepede, further adding to Santa Clara’s costly miscues throughout the ballgame.

Ozzie Pratt and Austin Deming each smacked three base hits on the afternoon, with Joshua Cowden adding a two-run blast and Mitch McIntyre driving in another run on an early double as well.

The Cougars earn their first WCC series sweep of the season and move to 6-6 within conference play. BYU now sets for a four-game weekend road trip to Nebraska beginning this Thursday.