Moments of brilliance were scattered throughout the 2008 baseball season as BYU fell short of sustaining momentum in posting a 22-36 overall record.
BYU led the Mountain West Conference in runs scored, total bases, stolen bases and sophomore outfielder Sean McNaughton led the league in doubles. McNaughton, who led the team with 14 home runs and 22 doubles, was BYU's only selection to the All-MWC First Team. Kent Walton, who was among the nation's leaders in triples, was named to the All-MWC Second Team.
McNaughton, who was also second team All-Midwest Region, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs and Walton was drafted by the Oakland A's.
The Cougars rallied at the end of the season at Utah in the final two outings of the three-game series with the Utes to finish the regular season. The Cougars only needed to win one of that series to secure the overall Deseret First Duel trophy for the BYU Athletic Department. BYU won game two at Utah behind five and eight-run innings in the seventh and ninth to secure that trophy and a 15-2 victory.
Hours later, the Cougars fashioned one of the most incredible comebacks in school history. Down 10-0 after seven innings to the Utes in the finale, BYU scored a season-high 12 runs in the eighth, from 11 singles. BYU scored 10 of those runs before an out was made. That 13-10 victory gave the team the Deseret First Duel baseball portion of the trophy and solidified BYU's No. 4 seed. BYU tied the Utes for fourth-place going into the Mountain West Conference Tournament with a 10-14 league record.
" I have never seen anything like it in all my years of baseball, " said BYU coach Vance Law. "It was a pretty boring game for seven innings until the hit parade started, one hit after another for about 45 minutes."
Briefly the Cougars' overall record was at .500 or better when they won the season opener, when they evened that record at 5-5 with a victory against San Jose State and when they took a 12-10 tally into the Oregon State series after a home sweep of the Air Force Academy. A victory over Cal-Davis was BYU's only win against NCAA-tournament bound teams as league champion TCU and Oral Roberts posted three-game sweeps over the Cougars.
Brandon Relf hit an inside-the-park home run in that final three-game sweep of AFA at Provo. The BYU team decided to wear the initials ARR above the left bill of its caps for the remainder of the season to show support for Angie Roberts (her maiden name is Roberts) Roberts, wife of assistant coach Ryan Roberts. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.
BYU snapped a five-game losing streak when it scored 22 runs off 27 hits a month later at Air Force Academy in a 22-0 victory where J.C. Leach went six-for-six. In that victory, Jake Wortham, who had started the season with a two-hitter, struck out nine in a complete game.
The Cougars also scored 21 runs from 24 hits at UNLV when they hit six homers in the 21-12 victory. J.T. Musso's three-run blast in the 10th inning led to that win in Las Vegas. Another key homer which led to victory was Kasey Ko's grand slam at Washington.
The Cougars began the MWC season in March at San Diego State where Blake Torgerson struck out a season high of 12 in the final seven innings of the 14-inning game.
Torgerson was one of three Cougars named to the All-River City Classic team early in March. Joining him on that all-tournament team were shortstop Dan Vargas and pitcher Jordan Muir. Just prior to that tournament, freshman hurler Tyler Westensee had struck out eight in the second of a two-game sweep at the University of the Pacific.
Westensee and redshirt freshman Nelson Castleberry each threw four-hitters in a pair of victories over Kansas State at Provo. Castleberry's complete game performance against Kansas State started BYU's season-best five-game winning streak and resulted in him being named MWC pitcher of the week.
"We all are disappointed in our showing this year but anxiously await starting a new year in the fall.," said Law. "We have a lot of players returning and we are committed to getting back to our winning ways. It has been a fine recruiting year as well which should add some needed depth to our team."