Winthrop got on the board first after two walks, a single and another walk. Jada Villegas came on in relief and induced a quick pop up before a 1-2-3 double play got BYU out of the jam.
The Cougars answered in the second, plating four runs on Lindy Milkowski and Tristen Turlington walks, a Maddie Udall-Woolley single through the left side, 2-RBI Lauren Flanders bunt and Aleia Agbayani double to right.
The Eagles answered back in their half of the second, drawing within one after a single, sacrifice bunt, error and triple to make it 4-3, BYU.
Extending their lead back out in the top of the third inning, Ilove’a Brittingham singled before Milkowski’s second walk. They both stole bases before Brittingham scored on a Winthrop error and Milkowski came home on a Udall-Woolley groundout for a 6-3 Cougar lead.
Villegas retired the side in order in the bottom of the third, aided by a diving Udall-Wooleyy foul out snag and a swinging strikeout to end the inning.
BYU put up another four spot in the fourth, with Agbayani smacking a double to left and Hailey Morrow walking. Brittingham doubled, scoring the pair, and Keila Kamoku launched a homer past the left field fence, giving the Cougars a 10-3 advantage.
In the home half of the fourth frame, another Villegas strikeout and Milkowski-to-Morrow caught stealing erased a runner to keep Winthrop quiet again.
The Cougars dropped their third four-spot of the game in the sixth, loading the bases on Amiya Hernandez and Milkowski walks and a Brittingham single, paving the way for Kamoku’s second long ball of the game, a deep grand slam shot to left center.
Alyssa Aguilar came on to pitch the bottom of the sixth and retired the side in order to close out BYU’s run-rule victory.
On Deck
The Cougars will play game two of their Saturday doubleheader at approximately 2 p.m. PT, facing Portland State.
