KENNESAW, Georgia (February 18, 2017) —Junior Nate Favero pounded two doubles and his BYU baseball teammates hit three home runs in a 13-4 victory over Kennesaw State on Saturday afternoon.
The Cougar homers came via David Clawson, Keaton Kringlen and Brock Hale en route to the their first victory of the 2017 campaign. BYU starter Brady Corless struck out six Owls in 5.2 innings before being tagged for a solo KSU homer and was replaced by lefty Bo Burrup.
“I'm really happy for Brady,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “He's worked hard on the field and in the classroom the last year so it's nice to see him have a great outing.
“DC (Clawson) did a nice job in his first college game both behind the plate and at the plate. One of the key at bats in the game was his sacrifice fly to center in the second inning with two strikes to get us on the board.”
The Cougars, now 1-1, took the initial lead in the second inning and never trailed against the Owls, also now 1-1 the Atlanta Challenge.
Kyle Dean led off the second with a single and scored on Clawson’s sacrifice fly after Favero doubled to left-center. Daniel Schneemann singled to center to plate Favero and then scored on a wild pitch after Brennon Anderson doubled down the left field line. Anderson then scored on another wild pitch to give BYU a 4-0 lead.
Favero got his second double of the day, this time to right center in the third, scoring Hale for what ended up as the game-winning RBI before crossing home himself on another Owl wild pitch.
In the fourth inning, Kringlen extended his current hitting streak to 13 games, singling in Anderson for a 7-1 cushion.
Clawson knocked his two-out home run to right field in the fifth inning, as Favero scored for the third time to increase BYU’s lead to 9-1.
After falling behind in the count in the sixth, Kringlen fouled off a pitch before swatting his first homer of the season to left field for a 10-1 margin.
Hale blasted his three-run homer to centerfield in the ninth inning to score Kringlen and Colton Shaver for the final 13-4 score.
“Our lineup will challenge a lot of pitching staffs this year,” Littlewood said. “Today we just wore down a great pitcher in AJ Moore and got to the Kennesaw pen early. Bo Burrup did a nice job in relief and it was nice to see Jordan Wood back out on the mound after his injury. Aaron Cross did exactly what we expected him to do with that devastating change up."
BYU plays its final game in the Atlanta Challenge on Monday at 3:45 p.m. EST at Georgia State, another Division I opponent.