PROVO— It was apparent there was magic in the royal blue jerseys BYU baseball sported when it championed against Utah with a final score of 20-3 Tuesday evening.
After showers all day in Provo, blue skies came just in time for play to begin at Miller Park for the first leg of the Deseret First Duel.
"It was unbelievable the energy and the feeling we had in the dugout,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “I’m not sure Utah was ready to play, maybe because of the rain issue.”
The Cougars, now 5-8, scored six of their runs in the first inning, and 12 of their 20 runs in the second inning, led by Brock Whitney with four runs.
Right-handed pitcher Desmond Poulson, now 3-0, struck out two Utes, Hunt and AJ Young, stranding TJ Bennett at second base and leaving Utah, now 5-6, scoreless in the first inning.
The Cougars scored their first three runs in the bottom of the first inning. The first run was by virtue of an error and the other two off the first of two triples by Kelton Caldwell. Quickly after, Caldwell scored off a single by Bret Lopez.
Caldwell tied the school record and belted two triples in a game; the second in inning number two. Caldwell’s single on his first of two at-bats in the second added another run for Whitney bringing his total up to three hits before the frame ended.
Jarrett Jarvis increased his hitting streak to 11 games by making contact with his first pitch in the bottom of the first inning. The Cougars batted around in the first inning after loading the bases twice and earning six runs.
The top of the second started out well for catcher Jarvis, throwing out the Utes’ first batter Wyler Smith who was caught stealing. Poulson closed the top of the second inning with the third strike out of the game, denying Utah of any runs, a trend that lasted until the ninth inning.
Whitney, Caldwell and Lopez each singled in the bottom of the second half to load the bases once more for the Cougars. Dillon Robinson singled to first base, bringing in Whitney and keeping the bases loaded.
To start the third inning, Poulson retired the Utes in order and closed the top of the third in a matter of minutes.
For the first time in the game the Utes held the Cougars to no runs in the third inning and it was the first time the Cougars did not complete their batting order.
In the fourth inning BYU had its first two subs of the game, CJ Latham and Eric Urry while Parker Starr pinch hit for Hayden Nielsen.
Utah threw seven pitchers on the mound by the eighth inning.
By the bottom of the seventh, Whitney led BYU with four runs at 20-0. The last largest scoring margin against Utah was in 1996 with a score of 23-5.
In the top of the ninth, Cory Hunt scored Utah’s first run of the game. Konnor Armijo and Smith contributed Utah’s other two runs.
“Utah is not going to play that bad again this entire year,” Littlewood said. “We caught them on a good night for us, a bad night for them, and everything went our way, I’ll take it for sure."
BYU will play a four-game series next at Nicholls State in Louisiana beginning Thursday at 6:00 p.m. CST.