Utah Baseball Drops a 6-5 Decision at BYU Friday

Thursday, March 24

Provo, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

7-14, 1-3

BYU

15-5-1, 3-1

Utah Utes

BYU Cougars

Utah Baseball Drops a 6-5 Decision at BYU Friday

3/24/2005 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 24, 2005

Final Stats

PROVO, Utah -- The University of Utah baseball team dropped a 6-5 decision to BYU Thursday night at Larry H. Miller Field.

BYU (15-5-1, 3-1 MWC) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Ute starter Jason Price. The Cougars strung together three straight two-out hits and took advantage of a fielding error by Ute center fielder John Welsh to take the two-run advantage.

Utah (7-14, 1-3 MWC) tied the contest up 2-2 in the top of the third. Ryder Olsen doubled to lead off the inning and scored when the Cougars committed an error on Seth Tartler's sacrifice bunt. Tartler then scored on a Ryan Khoury RBI single to knot the game at 2-2. BYU quickly regained the advantage in the bottom of the inning. The Cougars got a solo home run from Sean McNaughton leading off the inning to give his team a 3-2 edge.

The Utes put another two runs on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth. Jay Brossman led off with a double to the left-field corner. Brossman came around to tie the game 3-3 on a Trevor Eastman single. Eastman later scored on an Olsen single through the right side and Utah took a 4-3 advantage.

But the lead only lasted through the fifth inning. In the bottom of that frame, Marcos Villezscas singled with one out. With two outs, Jeff Hiestand ripped a home run to the deepest part of the park, straightaway center field. Hiestand's bomb put the Cougars on top 5-4.

Utah tied it up 5-5 in the top of the sixth. Eastman reached on an error, moved to second on a single from Olsen, took third on a sacrifice bunt. Eastman then scored on a wild pitch by BYU reliever Justin Su'a, tying the game at 5-5. BYU regained the advantage in the bottom of the inning. Ben Saylor walked and scored on a Casey Nelson two-out double down the right-field line, giving the Cougars a 6-5 advantage.

Utah had runners on in the seventh, eighth and ninth, but couldn't push a run across against Su'a or James Platt. Su'a pitched two innings to take the victory and push his record to 2-0, while Platt picked up his second save of the season. Price (1-5) suffered the loss for the Utes. Price tossed 6 1/3 innings, allowed six runs and five earned runs. He struck out seven, while walking just three.

Doug Beck was 4-for-5 at the plate to lead the Utah offense. Eastman was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Villezscas was 3-for-4 with a run scored for BYU, while Hiestand was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs.

Game two of the series is slated for 7 p.m. Friday night.

-UU-