OREM, Utah — BYU baseball defeated Utah Valley, 11-4, on Tuesday at UCCU Ballpark to sweep the two-game series and win the UCCU Crosstown Clash.
“I thought we had real good energy tonight,” said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. “After UVU scored early there was no panic, just a feeling that we’re going to score it’s just a matter of time. The bats got hot in the third inning and the pitching was solid all night.”
UVU (7-36, 5-23) got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning with a two-out home run down the right field line for a 1-0 lead.
BYU (17-23, 9-9) answered in the top of the third with four runs on four hits to take a 4-1 lead. Brock Watkins and Mitch McIntyre led off the inning with back-to-back doubles. Peyton Cole then singled to drive in McIntyre. Cole Gambill walked then Joshua Cowden singled to left center scoring Cole. Gambill would later score on a wild pitch to give BYU a three-run lead.
Both teams would score three runs in the fourth inning to make the score 7-4. Abraham Valdez and Walkins led off the inning with back-to-back walks, then Andrew Pintar singled to right to score Valdez. A Gambill double to right field scored Pintar and Watkins for the Cougars second and third runs of the inning.
BYU tacked on another run in the sixth inning on three singles from McIntyre, Cole and Gambill to increase the BYU lead to 8-4 through six.
After scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, the Cougars added three insurance runs in the ninth. Joshua Cowden reached on a fielding error to get things going. Danny Gelalich then walked and Valdez singled through the left side to score Cowden. Back-to-back walks by Watkins and McIntyre scored Gelalich and Cole’s sacrifice fly to deep right center scored Valdez for the Cougars 11th run of the game.
Zimmerman entered the game in relief in the bottom of the ninth to retire the side for the 11-4 Cougar victory.
It was a staff pitching day for both teams. BYU used five pitchers to hold the Wolverines to just four hits, while UVU threw seven pitchers and surrendered 11 hits. Cy Nielson got the start for the Cougars, going three innings and giving up just one hit while striking out three Wolverines for the victory, improving his record to 3-2 on the year.
BYU heads to California for a three-game series with WCC leader San Diego (28-8, 14-4). Thursday-Friday games are set for 6 p.m. PT, with the Saturday contest scheduled for 1 p.m. PT. The Toreros have won their last eight games, including back-to-back series sweeps of Santa Clara and Pepperdine in WCC action.