NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — BYU baseball tallied 10 home runs from eight different batters and posted two six-run innings in a 19-3 series-opening win over CSUN on Thursday night at Robert J. Hiegert Field.
“We did a good job finding the barrel tonight but I’m even more happy with the zero we put up, defensively, in the first inning,” said BYU head coach Trent Pratt. "CSUN is going to come ready to play tomorrow. The second we start thinking we're really good, this game will humble you in a hurry. We have to make sure we stay humble and hungry and come ready to play good baseball again tomorrow.”
From the first at bat to the top of the ninth, baseballs were flying off BYU bats and peppering the property beyond the ballpark in Northridge as the Cougars recorded 19 runs on 18 hits with just three singles.
Each batter in the BYU order recorded a hit, with Luke Anderson and second baseman Brock Watkins hitting two home runs a-piece. Thursday’s game marked just the sixth time in program history in which the Cougars recorded 10 or more homers and the most in a single game since a school-record 12 in a 26-4 win versus Air Force on April 26, 1998.
BYU Highlights
- Luke Anderson: 3-4, 3 runs, 3 RBI, 2 HR
- Brock Watkins: 2-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 2 HR
- Cooper Vest: 3-6, 3 runs, 1 RBI, HR
- Crew McChesney: 2-5, 2 runs, 2 RBI, HR
- Ryder Robinson: 2-5, 2 runs, 2 RBI, HR
- Easton Jones: 1-5, 1 run, 1 RBI, HR
- Payton Gubler: 5.0 IP, 6 SO, Win (1-1)
Game Summary
BYU hit through the order in the top of the first inning with six of the nine batters recording a hit as the Cougars jumped out to a 6-0 lead.
Crew McChesney led off with a single up the middle and quickly came home as Ryder Robinson drove one deep over the centerfield wall for the 2 RBI homer. Easton Jones wasted no time putting the Cougars up 3-0 with a solo blast to right on his first swing. After a Cooper Vest double to left, Anderson brought the Cougar first baseman home with a home run to right center. Watkins finished off the inning with his first home run of the game and season on a solo shot over the right field wall.
The Cougars exited the top of the first leading 6-0.
Starter Payton Gubler kept the game at 6-0 with a pair of flyouts and strikeout to strand two Matadors in the bottom of the first. Two more strikeouts from Gubler in the bottom of the second kept CSUN scoreless and stranded another.
BYU’s bats remained hot as Vest lead off the top of the third with a solo shot of his own. Anderson then hit his second bomb of the night, a solo shot to give the Cougars the 8-0 advantage. Bryker Hurdsman and Watkins added two more home runs in short order to get BYU into double digits. McChesney capped off the inning with a 2 RBI blast beyond right field to score Parker Goff who reached on a Matador error. Through two and a half innings the Cougars enjoyed a 12-0 lead with nine home runs.
Gubler stranded two more CSUN runners in the bottom of the third with his fourth and fifth strikeouts.
CSUN got on the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth to cut into the Cougar lead, 12-3.
BYU answered in the top of the sixth with Ezra McNaughton recording his first career RBI on a double down the first base line that scored Vest who had singled to lead off the inning. Hurdsman then reach on a walk and advanced to third on McNaughton’s double. He then scored on a CSUN wild pitch that gave the Cougars a 14-3 lead headed into the bottom of the sixth.
Goff got in on the RBI action in the top of the eighth with a two-run double down the leftfield line that scored Hurdsman and Anderson, upping the Cougars lead to 16-3.
BYU finished off its offensive onslaught in the top of the ninth with three more runs. Robinson led off with a stand-up double to left. Sophomore Keoni Painter then came to the plate for the first time since a season-ending injury midway through the 2024 season and was promptly beaned by the Matador pitcher, giving the Cougars runners on first and second. Ryker Schow then scored Robinson and Painter with a 3 RBI blast, BYU's 10th dinger of the night.
BYU and CSUN meet in game two of the weekend series on Friday at 4:30 p.m. PST. Watch the Cougars and Matadors on ESPN+ or listen to live play-by-play with Dave McCann and Tuckett Slade on the call on BYU Radio.