Utah Falls to BYU On Late Home Run

Thursday, May 18

Salt Lake City

11:30 AM

University of Utah

27-24, 9-11

BYU

28-26, 12-8

Brigham Young Univ.

Univ. of Utah

5/18/2006 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 18, 2006

Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY - Brigham Young University's Jeff Hiestand hit a solo home run to lead off the ninth inning Thursday at Franklin Covey Field. That dinger lifted the Cougars to an 8-7 victory over the University of Utah.

Hiestand's second solo shot of the day broke a 7-7 tie. BYU reliever Josh Barrett (3-0) then retired the Utes in order in the bottom half of the frame to preserve the victory for his squad. Utah reliever Brad DeVore (3-4) suffered the loss. He allowed just the home run to Hiestand in 2 1/3 innings of work.

Utah had a four-run lead after three innings. The Utes scored two when BYU left fielder Austin Carter misplayed a Bret Baldwin fly ball. The rally continued when Jay Brossman ripped a run-scoring double down the left-field line. John Welsh followed that with an RBI triple into the right-field corner to make it 4-0.

Hiestand's first homer of the day got BYU started in the top of the fourth, making it 4-1. The Cougars added two more in the inning of Ute starter Josh Cooper to pull within one run, 4-3.

Utah took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Ryan Khoury sacrifice fly. Both teams tallied single runs in the fifth to make it 6-4. The Cougars finally tied things up 6-6 in the sixth, scoring two off Cooper and chasing him from the game. BYU grabbed a 7-6 lead, scoring a single run in the seventh off Utah reliever Brian Lane.

The Utes tied it up at 7-7 when Bret Baldwin hit an opposite field homer off the left-field foul pole in the seventh. But Utah couldn't do any more damage against BYU starter Jordan Muir, who gave way to Barrett in the eighth.

The Utes and Cougars will play the second game of their three-game set Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Franklin Covey Field.

-UU-