PROVO, Utah – Brock Hale, Bronson Larsen and Tanner Chauncey slugged home runs in BYU baseball's 11-5 win to seal its three-game sweep of San Francisco and maintain the West Coast Conference lead on Saturday at Larry H. Miller Field.
"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said. "We can score in any inning. A lot of teams have to get to the middle of their order to score, but we have good hitters all through the lineup and can wear pitchers down."
The Cougars (25-14, 14-4 West Coast Conference), who regained the league lead after Friday's results, stayed on top with their fifth-straight win. The Dons fell to 22-23, 7-14.
After San Francisco took a 1-0 advantage in the first, the BYU bats tagged Don starter Daniel Slominski for six runs in the third inning. Brock Hale drove a three-run homer into the pine trees over the centerfield fence and Bronson Larsen crushed a solo shot over the left field scoreboard.
BYU left fielder Keaton Kringlen flashed the leather for the final out in the bottom of the third inning with a leaping catch up against the wall on a ball that possibly would have left the yard.
Daniel Schneemann’s second sacrifice fly upped the Cougars’ lead to 7-1 in the fourth inning.
San Francisco chipped away, with two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to cut its deficit to 7-4.
Chauncey launched the third home run of his career in the seventh inning on a solo drive to right-center that hit on the top of the fence and bounced over. Larsen singled home Hale for BYU’s ninth run in the same inning. Favero then hit a liner to right field to bring home two more Cougars for an 11-4 lead.
Cougar starter Hayden Rogers (5-1) went 5.2 innings for the win and surrendered four runs on seven hits. Keaton Cenatiempo relieved him and got two outs before Aaron Cross took over. Cross pitched two hitless innings before Mason Marshall was brought on for the ninth inning and gave up one run before getting out of a jam with a strikeout and groundout.
"Our bullpen did a good job all three days," Littlewood said. "It was key to get guys out there that they hadn't seen, like Aaron (Cross), and he got six big outs for us."
BYU plays on the road Tuesday in the UCCU Crosstown Clash against Utah Valley at 6 p.m. MDT.