MORAGA, California – Led by Austin Deming’s two home runs, BYU defeated Saint Mary’s 12-2 to even the WCC three-game series at 1-1 on Friday afternoon at Louis Guisto Field.
"I’m real proud of the way the guys bounced back today," said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. "After a tough loss last night, we got down early in the second inning today, but our guys responded really well. We had a lot of clutch hitting with runners in scoring position.”
After getting down early in the second inning 2-0, the Cougars scored 12 unanswered runs, including three runs in four different innings for the win.
Deming got things going with a three-run bomb in the top of the fourth that scored Jacob Wilk, who had singled to open the inning, and Ryan Sepede, who was hit by a pitch. The big hit gave BYU its first lead of the game, 3-2.
“That home run in the fourth inning was big for us,” said Deming. “We were down 2-0 and I got behind in the count, but thankfully I got a good pitch to hit and was able to drive in some runs to help us take the lead. Up and down the lineup we were seeing it well at the plate today.”
After a scoreless fifth inning, the Cougars tacked on three more runs in the top of the sixth to push the lead to 6-2. BYU sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning, including Deming who hit his second home run of the game to get things started. The Cougars then picked up two more runs in the inning on hits by freshmen Mason Strong and Ozzie Pratt, combined with walks by Hayden Leatham and Mitch McIntyre.
BYU scored three additional runs in the seventh off a two-out, bases-loaded triple by Leatham, and three more in the eighth on RBI singles from Strong and Pratt.
On the day, the Cougars were a blistering 9 of 19 (.474) with runners in scoring position and pounded out 15 hits in the 12-2 victory, the second highest total of the season behind the 19 tallied in a 19-3 win at Arizona State. The Cougars are now 12-0 on the year when scoring at least six or more runs.
In addition to a strong offensive production, BYU got a solid pitching performance from starter Ryan Brady (2-2), who went five innings for his second victory of the year, and Bryce Robison, who closed out the game surrendering just two hits over four innings for his first save.
“I thought Ryan was fantastic on the mound today, and Bryce came on in relief and did an awesome job the last four innings to close out the game,” said Littlewood.
The Cougars and Gaels are back in action on Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m. PDT, with the winner talking the season series. The game will be streamed live on the WCC Network and broadcast on the BYU Radio Network—BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.