All the U baseball team had to do to sew up a No. 2 seed for the MWC Tournament was sweep BYU in Provo at Miller Field. Easier said than done.
Heading into the weekend series against BYU, the U baseball team could have taken over second place in the Mountain West Conference standings and a No. 2 seed in the MWC Tournament.
Instead, the Cougars feasted on the Utes, sweeping them en route to solidifying their own No. 2 seeding in the upcoming conference tournament. The Cougars took all three games by scores of 5-4, 5-4 and 12-5, bumping Utah to a third-place tie with San Diego State and New Mexico.
Game one on Thursday night was all Utah early on. The Utes scored the first four runs of the game, but BYU stormed back in the middle innings to even the game at 4-4. The final result would be determined in the seventh inning, when Ute reliever John James gave up a solo home run to BYU’s Kent Weldon, giving BYU a 5-4 advantage. BYU’s pitching held strong in the final two innings, giving them the win and ending any hopes of Utah claiming the number two spot.
Game two on Friday evening provided a platform for a familiar outcome. Utah fought ahead early, gaining a 4-0 advantage behind second baseman Cory Shimada’s reliable bat–which extended his hitting streak to 22 games. But for the second day in a row BYU came roaring back, tying the ballgame in the seventh behind a run scored by Leon Johnson.
Johnson was not finished. Batting in the bottom of the ninth, Johnson hit a walk-off homer giving the Cougars their second-straight dramatic win over the Utes.
On Saturday, game three began a lot like games one and two. It was Shimada again getting on base, this time because of his plate discipline, setting up John Welsh to pick up the game’s first RBI.
Later in the second Erich Kemp blasted a home run into left field, giving Utah a 2-0 lead after the top half of the second innings.
From that point the Cougars took over. They tore off five runs in the bottom of the second at the expense of Ute starter Lucas Trinnaman. Utah reliever Brad Devore did not fare much better, giving up four runs and increasing BYU’s run total to 10.
In the sixth inning Shimada extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a single.
By the fifth inning BYU had increased its lead to 11-4 and coasted to a 12-5 win.
Utah moved to 24-29 overall and 12-12 in MWC play, while BYU bumped its overall record to 35-18 while improving to 17-7 in the MWC.
Next up for the Utes is a No. 3 seed heading into the MWC Tournament and a match-up against tournament host UNLV in the first round.