WESTCHESTER, Calif.—Junior Eric Urry belted a two-run homer in the 12th inning to give BYU baseball a 5-3 win over second-place Loyola Marymount University on Thursday night.
Urry knocked the 2-2 pitch over the right field fence to score Dillon Robinson for his second dinger of the season.
“I knew I hit it well and was hoping it would go out,” Urry said. “We came up clutch and got the big hits we needed.”
“It was an unbelievable game,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “I thought we did a nice job of not getting frustrated. I took the hit and run call off on Urry.
“Everybody stepped up. That was an incredible team effort and we put it together. (Colin) Wellman was throwing four pitches for strikes tonight, I was sure glad to see him leave."
Behind the nine strikeouts by LMU pitcher Colin Wellman, the Lions (20-14 and 8-6 in West Coast Conference) fell victim to BYU (16-17, 7-6).
A ninth-inning rally by BYU blew a save by reliever J.D. Busfield, who led the nation with 11 saves in as many appearances.
Cougar Brennon Lund extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a one-out single in the ninth inning. Lund scored the Cougars’ second run in that frame on Tanner Chauncey’s single off second reliever Busfield. Robinson singled in Hayden Nielsen for the tying run in the ninth.
Shortstop Nielsen turned an unassisted double play to end the 11th inning with Lions on the corners.
The Cougars picked up their first run in the eighth inning when Robinson hit a one-out single to left-centerfield off Wellman’s first reliever. Robinson advanced to third before scoring on Urry’s two-out single up the middle.
BYU got seven-plus solid innings from starter Kolton Mahoney who had six strikeouts on 118 pitches. Keaton Cenatiempo relieved Mahoney and struck out the last two Lions in the 10th, the last of which came with the bases loaded. Cenatiempo got the win to improve to 3-1, while Michael Rucker relieved him to start the 12th frame and got his fourth save.
The Lions host the Cougars in the second of the three-game series on Friday at 6 p.m., PDT, in a game streamed live by theW.tv.