Utah Drops 12-5 Decision to BYU

Saturday, May 19

Provo, Utah

4:00 PM

University of Utah

24-29, 12-12

BYU

35-18, 17-7

Utah Utes

Brigham Young Univ.

5/19/2007 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 19, 2007

Box Score

PROVO, Utah - Two big innings for Brigham Young University led to the University of Utah baseball team dropping a 12-5 decision to the Cougars Saturday afternoon at Miller Field. BYU swept the series, taking 5-4 wins both on Thursday and Friday.

Utah (24-29, 12-12 MWC), as it had in the first two games of the series, held an early lead. The Utes scored a single run in the first inning when second baseman Corey Shimada walked and later scored on a single up the middle from right fielder John Welsh. The Utes went up 2-0 in the second inning, when third baseman Erich Kemp hit a solo home run to left field.

It was all Cougars from there. BYU (35-18, 17-7 MWC) scored five runs in the bottom of the second. Four of the second-inning runs were charged to Ute starter Lucas Trinnaman. The big blow in the inning was a two-run double off the bat of Dan Vargas. Both teams added a single run over the next inning, making the score 6-3 going into the bottom of the fourth.

BYU then had another big inning, tallying four runs off Ute reliever Brad DeVore to go on top 10-3. Both teams scored once in the fifth to make it 11-4. BYU increased its advantage to 12-4 in the eighth. The Utes got an RBI double from Jay Brossman in the top of the ninth to account for the final tally.

Shimada extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a sixth-inning single.

Jake Wortham tossed five innings to take the win for BYU, moving to 7-4 on the season. Trinnaman (0-6) suffered the loss. Center fielder Nate Burnham led Utah at the plate, going 3-for-5. Welsh and Brossman each had a pair of hits for the Utes, who tallied 13 hits but couldn't score more than one run in any inning. Vargas led the way for the BYU offense, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Utah will enter next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face UNLV Wednesday in the first round. First pitch for that contest is slated for 11 a.m. PDT.

-UU-