BATON ROUGE, La. – Back-to-back home runs propelled BYU softball to a 3-1 victory over No. 13/14 Baylor Saturday morning at the LSU Round Robin.
“It was great to see our team come out today with energy and a calm confidence,” BYU head coach Gordon Eakin said. “We played a solid game and executed well on offense. Caitlyn (Alldredge) and Madi (Merrell) gave us big-time home runs to fuel our offense."
Both the Cougars (17-14) and Lady Bears (19-5) had five hits each in BYU’s come-from-behind win.
Briielle Breland, Lexi Tarrow, Libby Sugg, Caitlyn Alldredge and Madison Merrell all had one hit apiece, with Alldredge and Merrell slugging back-to-back homers.
Kerisa Viramontes allowed just one run and pitched her eighth complete game of the season, improving to 7-4 on the year.
"Kerisa didn't have the best command of her pitches today but she fought through it and competed, getting the job done against a tough Baylor offense," Eakin said.
Baylor got on the board first in the top of the third, scoring one run on two hits. Nicky Dawson singled and then advanced to second on a groundout at first. Jessie Scroggins singled through the right side and Dawson crossed the plate for a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Cougars hit back-to-back home runs to take their first lead of the game. Alldredge homered to left field to even the score 1-1. With a full count, Merrell also sent a dinger to left field for a 2-1 advantage.
Breland led off in the sixth with a single up the middle. Tarrow then singled to left field as Breland moved up a base. Breland advanced to third and Tarrow stole second. The runners moved up on a wild pitch with Breland coming home to make it 3-1.
BYU vs. No. 13 Baylor Box Score
The Cougars travel to Cedar City, Utah, on Tuesday to play Southern Utah before heading to the ASU Invitational in Tempe, Arizona, March 30-31.