Cougars fall to Knights 7-6 in Saturday rubber match

PROVO, Utah – BYU baseball fell to the UCF Knights 7-6 in the rubber match at Miller Park on Saturday afternoon despite a late comeback effort in the ninth. 

"We played hard and gave it our all," said BYU head coach Trent Pratt. "We have to find a way to be one pitch better and execute on the mound."

The Cougars fall to 11-7 on the season and 1-2 in Big 12 play while the visiting Knights improve to 15-4 on the season and 2-1 in conference games. BYU will return to Miller Park on Monday for a 4 p.m. MT first pitch as Utah Tech visits Provo. 

BYU Highlights

Crew McChesney: 2-4, Run, RBI
Parker Goff: 2-4, Run, 3B
Cooper Vest: 2-5, RBI, Run, 3B
Garrison Sumner: 6.0 IP, 6 K, 6 H, 3 R 

Game Summary

After holding the Knights scoreless through two and a third, UCF’s Edian Espinal took the first pitch of the third inning deep to right for a homerun to take a 1-0 lead. Sumner retired the next two batters to keep the lead at one heading to the bottom of the third.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Parker Goff tripled off the wall in left field and was brought around to score by a Crew McChesney sacrifice fly. With one run, the Cougars knotted the game at one through three.

After holding the Knights scoreless in the top of the fourth, Cooper Vest tripled to open the bottom of the inning. Two pitches later, Bryker Hurdsman singled to center field to plate Vest and push BYU ahead 2-1 with no one out. Hurdsman then stole second and advanced to third on a flyout to right field, but both were left stranded as Goff was put out on strikes.

UCF responded in the top half of the fifth to square the game at two. In the bottom half, Ryder Robinson reached on an error before advancing to second on a Luke Anderson single. With two outs, Hurdsman drew a walk to juice the bases, but Brock Watkins struck out ending the Cougar scoring opportunity.

The Knights broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth with a home run to right-center field to go up 3-2. In the eighth, UCF extended the lead to 5-2 with back-to-back singles before a two-out triple plated two.

The Cougars drew back-to-back walks to start the eighth, but a double play followed by a ground out to third kept BYU off the scoreboard and down three heading to the ninth.

UCF added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth to go up 7-2. The Cougars quickly loaded the bases with a trio of singles by Goff, McChesney and Robinson before Anderson worked a walk to bring Vest to the plate, who would represent the tying run, with no outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Vest singled to center to drive in McChesney and pull BYU within three at 7-4. Hurdsman then took the first pitch he faced through the gap in the left side of the infield to score Anderson and Robinson, pulling the Cougars within one at 7-6 with no outs. After a strikeout, BYU grounded into a double play to end the game.