PROVO -- Pitchers Ryan Adams and Scott Koffman shut down the hot hitters of UNLV, helping BYU defeat the Rebels 7-5 Friday night.
The Cougars, now 18-25-1 on the season and 11-11 in the Mountain West Conference, climb back in second place, a half game ahead of Utah (the Utes lost 12-5 to New Mexico at Salt Lake City Friday night). UNLV falls to 25-24 this season and 10-13 in the MWC.
"We needed this win real bad," said Head BYU Coach Vance Law. "It was a big win for us."
One night after giving up a Mountain West Conference-record 28 hits to UNLV, Law called on his veteran Adams to start in front of 1,189 fans at Larry H. Miller Field. Adams held the Rebels to five runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings and recorded his first victory in nearly a month to improve to 4-5.
With one man on and two outs in the sixth inning, Law called Koffman out of the bullpen. Koffman followed with 3.1 innings without allowing a hit or a run. Koffman struck out two and walked only one to earn his first save of the season to slam the door shut.
"We had our lunch handed to us yesterday," Law said. "But that's just another loss. We seemed to bounce back pretty well today."
Sophomore Dave Jensen improved his hitting streak to 15 games with two hits and one stolen base. Second baseman Cameron Coughlan had two hits and a stolen base as well, making him 21-for-24 on steals this season.
Designated hitter Jake Stubblefield added a double and an RBI to give BYU its first tie of the series in Provo at 2-2 in the second inning.
Behind 2-1 going into the second, Ranger Wiens led off with a single to left and scored off Stubblefield's double to the right-field wall. Lars Birkeland doubled down the left-field line to bring in Stubblefield for the go-ahead run. Birkeland advanced to third on a passed ball and scored when Cameron Coughlan singled to right, chasing starting pitcher David Seccombe from the game. Coughlan stole second and scored off Jensen's single to right.
In the fifth inning with the bases loaded, Stubblefield got what proved to be the game-winning RBI on a sacrifice fly to centerfield to score Matt Carson.
"Jake (Stubblefield) is coming out of it," Law said. "He's swing the way we need him to at just the right time."
The Rebels made a comeback in the sixth to chase Adams off the mound. With men on first and third, Robert Vankirk hit a fly ball to left-center field where the two BYU outfielders mis-communicated in the alley and dropped the ball. That error allowed Garett Shitanishi to score from third and Tony Schuler to score from first, closing the margin to 7-5.
Sophomore Paul Jacinto is scheduled to take the mound at 1 p.m. Saturday in BYU's regular season finale against UNLV.
UNLV at Brigham Young Univ.
May 03, 2002 at Provo, Utah (Larry H.Miller Field)
UNLV 5 (25-24,10-13 MWC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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RUIZ, Ryan ss............ 3 1 1 0 2 0 1 2 1
JOHNSON, Brent cf/lf..... 5 1 2 0 0 0 4 0 1
WICKMAN, Joe lf/cf....... 4 1 2 1 0 1 5 0 0
NIELSEN, Eric rf/1b...... 4 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 2
AMUNDSEN, Derek dh....... 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
SHITANISHI, Garett 2b.... 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 1
SCHULER, Tony 3b......... 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 0
VANKIRK, Robert c........ 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1
GOLDBERG, Steve 1b....... 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
REUSS, Jason ph/rf...... 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
SECCOMBE, David p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
HARRIS, Chad p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
HALL, Courtney p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 35 5 8 2 2 2 24 9 6
Brigham Young Univ. 7 (18-25-1,11-11 MWC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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JACKSON, Doug cf......... 5 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 2
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b..... 4 2 2 1 0 0 4 5 0
JENSEN, Dave 1b.......... 4 0 2 1 0 0 12 1 0
CARSON, Matt rf.......... 3 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0
ITRI, Rob 3b............. 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
WIENS, Ranger ss......... 4 1 2 0 0 0 2 6 3
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake dh.... 3 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........ 4 1 1 1 0 2 2 0 0
YI, Han lf............... 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0
ADAMS, Ryan p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
KOFFMAN, Scott p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 33 7 10 6 1 3 27 15 6
Score by Innings R H E
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UNLV................ 201 002 000 - 5 8 0
Brigham Young Univ.. 140 020 00X - 7 10 4
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E - JACKSON 2; WIENS; YI. DP - BYU Cougars 1. LOB - Rebels 6; BYU Cougars 6.
2B - STUBBLEFIELD; BIRKELAND. HBP - ITRI 2. SF - AMUNDSEN; STUBBLEFIELD. SB
- RUIZ; COUGHLAN; JENSEN.
UNLV IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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SECCOMBE, David..... 1.2 6 5 4 0 1 11 11
HARRIS, Chad........ 2.1 3 2 2 1 1 10 13
HALL, Courtney...... 4.0 1 0 0 0 1 12 13
Brigham Young Univ. IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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ADAMS, Ryan......... 5.2 8 5 2 1 0 25 27
KOFFMAN, Scott...... 3.1 0 0 0 1 2 10 11
Win - ADAMS (4-5). Loss - SECCOMBE (2-2). Save - KOFFMAN (1).
HBP - by HARRIS (ITRI); by HARRIS (ITRI). PB - VANKIRK 2.
Umpires - HP: Bill Boyd 1B: Terry Balser 3B: Jeff Jenkins
Start: 6:59 Time: 2:37 Attendance: 1189
Game notes:
Game 2 of 3...this afternoon @AFA, SDSU lost 8-7 and Kaercher threw
173 pitches.
HARRIS faced 3 batters in the 5th.