PROVO, Utah – Tanner Chauncey’s bad-hop single past Pepperdine shortstop Manny Jefferson broke a 3-3 tie and the BYU baseball team cruised to a 5-3 victory Friday night at Miller Park.

"I can't say enough about our guys and how they came back tonight and battled and were resilient," BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. "That's been our team this whole year, we have played in games like this that were close and we just couldn't get the big hit and now that we've started doing that, it is resulting in wins for us."

Going in to the seventh inning the game was tied 3-3 when BYU's Derrick Whitney started with a single to left field. Hayden Nielsen bunted and a throwing error from Pepperdine allowed Nielsen to get on base while advancing Whitney to third. Chauncey’s single then scored the winning run.

The Waves (9-10, 1-1) grabbed an early lead in the third inning when Manny Jefferson crushed a homerl to left-center that dropped well beyond the outfield wall.

The Cougars (8-11, 1-1) answered in the fourth when Colton Shaver’s line drive to shallow center scored Nielsen from second. A few batters later Bronson Larsen’s infield grounder scored Dillon Robinson from third.

BYU built a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning off Parker Starr’s bunt that trickled down the left field line with the ball stopping between third base and home plate and scored Robinson from third.

Pepperdine answered in the seventh scoring two runs with Jefferson accounting for another run, but the Wave lead was short lived as Chauncey and the Cougars responded in the bottom of the inning.

BYU added one more one run in the eighth when Eric Urry scored from third off of Witney's fielder's choice with the bases loaded.

Keaton Cenatiempo (2-1) took the win for the Cougars throwing 1.1 innings with two strikeouts. Jeff Barker threw 113 pitches over 6.2 innings giving up six hits, three runs, while striking out four batters. Michael Rucker recorded his second save, retiring the final three batters in the ninth, catching the tail-end of a 3-6-1 double play to seal the victory to the delight most of the 1,357 fans in attendance.

"Jeff (Barker) mixes speeds so well and relies a lot on his off-speed stuff," Littlewood sad. "Sometimes that makes him get behind and he will walk a couple guys, but he seems to always work out of it. I'm proud of the way he pitched tonight and how he really has all year."

The Cougars first victory in the West Coast Conference avenges Thursday's 11-3 loss to the Waves which ended a five-game win streak. 

BYU will play Pepperdine again at Larry H. Miller Field Saturday at 1 p.m. MDT. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv and can be heard on KOVO 960 AM and BYU Sports Radio – Sirius XM 143.

PROVO, Utah -- Before league play begins this week in Provo, BYU’s baseball team has a non-conference game on Tuesday night at Utah Valley University.

The Cougars (6-10) have a four-game winning streak after sweeping Hartford to open the home season last week.  BYU plays at UVU (3-11) on Tuesday at 6 p.m., when Brady Corless (0-2, 12.71) will be its starting pitcher.

"Anytime we play an in-state team it makes for an interesting game, whether it be Utah or Utah Valley,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We know how important those games are for in-state recruiting, as well as local bragging rights.  Rivalry is the farthest thing from the relationship Eric (Madsen) and I have.  I’ve always had the utmost respect for the way he goes about things and how he runs his program.”

West Coast Conference action begins with a three-game series on Thursday in Provo against Pepperdine (8-8) when Kolton Mahoney (1-1, 3.09)  takes the mound.  Both Thursday and Friday’s games  start at 6 p.m., withJeff Barker (1-1, 4.37) on the hill in game two.  Brandon Kinser (1-1, 2.49) will be the Cougar starter in Saturday’s game at 1 p.m.

Sophomore centerfielder Brennon Lund has a current eight-game hitting streak and with his .319 batting average is one of six Cougars hitting above .300.  Junior Hayden Nielsen leads BYU with a .379 average, having tallied 13 of his team-leading 17 RBI from last week’s four games.  Nielsen hit the game-winning RBI in the last three Cougar wins.

"He (Nielsen) has been seeing the ball well,” Littlewood said.  “We've come to expect two-out RBI and big hits from him and it's good to see it continue."

Mahoney is one of six Cougar pitchers with a win and leads the team averaging 11.2 strikeouts per game.

BYU was picked sixth in the WCC preseason poll, while Pepperdine was voted second in the standings. Only the Pepperdine series will be broadcast live over Radio 960 AM and all three of those games will be televised live by BYUtv.

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