IRVINE -- Kainoa Obrey belted a three-run homer in the 14th inning late Thursday evening to give BYU a 10-7 victory over UC Irvine.
Obrey's homer in the four-hour-plus game gave BYU its first victory of the season, making the Cougars 1-3, while UCI is now 1-4. The junior All American from Hawaii hit his one-out homer off reliever Jon Koller, who had struck out eight Cougars.
Equally impressive was BYU sophomore reliever Jeff Mousser who earned the victory with seven-plus innings of two-hit work and six strikeouts.
In the middle of a 14-game homestand, UCI lost a 3-1 lead, but rebounded from a 7-3 deficit to tie the game in the seventh at Anteater Ballpark before 620 fans.
The Anteaters struck first, scoring on a pair of second-inning doubles by Chris Miller and Elliot Salcedo to left and right field, respectively. Ranger Wiens' one-out triple in the left-center gap got the Cougars started in the third inning. Wiens was driven in by Han Yi's sharp shot to shortstop resulting in an error to tie the score, 1-1.
UCI took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Steve Guthrie hit a two-out single and was driven in again by Daniel Miramontes. The Anteaters extended their lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Matt Anderson hit a one-out triple to score Jordan Szabo, who reached on an error.
Matt Carson's two-run single in the sixth gave BYU a 4-3 lead and it chased Paul French off the mound. Carson's single to right field scored Yi and Cameron Coughlan. Coughlan's single to right scored Wiens, who walked to start the inning.
The Cougars improved that lead to 7-3 in the three-run seventh when a two-run error with two outs opened the door with Wiens and Yi scoring. Coughlan scored BYU's third run as UCI went through three pitchers. The seventh was bad for BYU, however, as Jeff Stone was taken from the mound when the Anteaters scored four consecutive runs which reliever Sam Fernley couldn't contain.
Mousser replaced Fernley in the seventh and retired UCI in order the next two innings, including a Yi-Wiens-Dave Jensen double play to end the eighth. It was also three-up, three-down for Mousser in the 10th and 12th innings.
Carson doubled to left field with one out to set up Obrey's homer.
Jensen's hitting streak extended to 11-games with a 12th-inning single. The Cougars lost baserunners to end the innings in the third and fourth when Yi was picked off first and Matt Carson was caught stealing second. BYU last played a 14-inning ball game in 1993 when it defeated Washington, 7-6.
BYU and UCI play the second of three games on Friday evening.
BYU at UC Irvine
Jan 31, 2002 at Irvine, CA (Anteater Ballpark)
BYU 10 (1-3)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug cf......... 7 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3
COUGHLAN, Cameron lf..... 7 2 2 1 0 1 3 0 0
CARSON, Matt rf.......... 7 0 3 4 0 1 1 0 0
THURGOOD, Ryan pr....... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
JENSEN, Dave 1b.......... 5 1 1 0 2 3 18 1 0
OBREY, Kainoa 3b......... 6 1 1 3 1 2 4 6 3
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake dh.... 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
ITRI, Rob ph............ 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........ 6 0 1 0 1 2 10 2 0
WIENS, Ranger ss......... 4 3 2 0 1 1 2 8 0
YI, Han 2b............... 3 2 0 1 1 1 2 4 1
CHAMBERS, Ryan ph....... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
CARSON Clayton 2b....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
STONE, Jeff p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
FERNLEY, Sam p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MOUSSER, Jeff p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 52 10 10 9 7 14 42 24 9
UC Irvine 7 (1-4)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Szabo, Jordan rf......... 6 2 1 0 1 1 8 0 0
Anderson, Matt 1b........ 5 1 3 1 1 1 8 0 0
Trejo, Effren 2b......... 6 1 1 1 1 0 3 1 0
Miller, Chris c.......... 6 1 1 1 0 0 14 2 3
Guthrie, Steve 3b........ 6 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 2
Johnson, Erik cf......... 1 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0
Brown, R.J. cf.......... 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Reddick, Herman cf...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Horwitz, Jon cf......... 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0
Miramontes, Daniel lf.... 6 0 2 2 1 0 3 0 0
Salcedo, Elliot dh....... 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Wallis, Gregg dh........ 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Eucce, B.J. ss........... 5 1 1 0 1 2 1 3 3
French, Paul p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Tripoli, Phil p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alstot, Jimmy p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Raulinaitis, Keith p.... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Koller, Jon p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
McMillan, Nick p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 51 7 12 6 6 10 42 10 12
Score by Innings R H E
--------------------------------------------------
BYU................. 001 003 300 000 03 - 10 10 2
UC Irvine........... 010 110 400 000 00 - 7 12 2
--------------------------------------------------
E - JENSEN(2); CARSON C.(1); Anderson(1); Eucce(3). DP - BYU 2. LOB - BYU 9;
UCI 12. 2B - CARSON M.(1); Miller(2); Miramontes(1). 3B - WIENS(1);
Anderson(1). HR - OBREY(1). HBP - WIENS; YI; Guthrie; Johnson. SH -
Anderson(1). SF - Miller(1). SB - COUGHLAN(4); CARSON M.(2). CS - CARSON
M.(1); Eucce(1).
BYU IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
STONE, Jeff......... 6.0 8 7 6 2 4 27 30
FERNLEY, Sam........ 0.1 2 0 0 1 0 2 4
MOUSSER, Jeff....... 7.2 2 0 0 3 6 22 27
UC Irvine IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
French, Paul........ 5.1 4 4 3 2 4 19 21
Tripoli, Phil....... 1.1 1 3 0 2 1 5 8
Alstot, Jimmy....... 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Raulinaitis, Keith.. 0.2 1 0 0 1 1 3 4
Koller, Jon......... 6.0 4 3 3 2 8 22 25
McMillan, Nick...... 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
Win - MOUSSER (1-0). Loss - Koller (0-2). Save - None.
WP - FERNLEY(1); Tripoli 2(2); Raulinaitis. HBP - by STONE (Johnson); by Tripoli
(YI); by Koller (WIENS); by MOUSSER (Guthrie). BK - STONE(3).
Umpires - HP: Tony Norris 1B: Scott Daniel 3B: Dan Ignosci
Start: 7:04 Time: 4:36 Attendance: 620
Alstot faced 1 batter in the 7th.
STONE faced 4 batters in the 7th.