LOS ANGELES (March 23, 2017)—Maverik Buffo and Keaton Cenatiempo pitched BYU baseball to a 5-3 victory in its 2017 West Coast Conference debut over Loyola Marymount on Thursday night.

Cenatiempo registered his first save of the season throwing the final three innings to enable Buffo to even his record at 3-3. The Cougars began defense of their WCC title by improving their record to 10-9 and 1-0 in their league opener.

LMU evened its conference record to 2-2 and fell to 11-10 overall. BYU took the initial 4-0 lead in the second inning and never trailed.

BYU’s Brock Hale lasered a double half way up the Mikos Blue Monster, a 37-foot-high wall in left field, to lead off the second inning. Keaton Kringlen got aboard with a shortstop error, then both runners advanced to second and third before Hale scored on a Bronson Larsen single to left field.  Kyle Dean tagged the Blue Monster for a double to plate Kringlen. Colton Shaver looped a shallow single to right center to score Larsen. Then Dean scored on Brennon Andersen’s sac fly.

“The guys were really ready to play tonight,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “Maverik was a bulldog tonight and Keaton did a great job shutting the door.”

Buffo caught a napping Lion off first base when he threw to Tanner Chauncey for the first out in the bottom of the fourth before LMU got an RBI single to get on the scoreboard.

In the sixth inning BYU squandered a scoring opportunity when Casey Jacobsen was tagged out on his bunt, then LMU completed the double play when it caught Larsen coming home with Shaver stranded on second. The Lions plated two runs in the bottom of that frame before good defensive plays from Hale and Jacobsen extinguished the rally.

In the seventh inning, Cenatiempo took over for Buffo, who struck out four in six innings, and recorded a strikeout with a Lion on second to end the frame.

With bases loaded in the eighth, Cenatiempo got his second strikeout of the inning when he fanned LMU’s pinch-hitter to snuff out the Lions.

“Our hitters put the pressure on them early, but we need to do a better job tomorrow (Friday) staying with it for a full nine innings,” Littlewood said.

The Lions and Cougars play game two of the series on Friday at 6 p.m. PDT.

League play begins Thursday for BYU baseball at Loyola Marymount University to start a three-game series.

The Cougars (9-9, 0-0) begin defending their West Coast Conference title  when they face LMU (11-9, 2-1).  The Lions got bookend wins last week in their WCC opener on the road and now readies for the Cougars at home.

“Despite our .500 record we feel good about how we've played overall,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We've played quality opponents and had some very tough games; this has prepared us well as we open up league play this week at LMU.”

The Cougars also took two of three last week when they hosted UConn against quality pitching.

The pitching rotation remains the same this week for BYU with Maverik Buffo (2-3, 5.40) and Brady Corless  (2-0, 4.35) on the hill for the  6 p.m.  PDT games on Thursday and Friday. Lefty Hayden Rogers (1-0, 2.59) will start for the Cougars in Saturday’s game at 1 p.m. PDT.

Shortstop Daniel Schneemann leads the Cougars with a current 13-game hitting streak after posting a second game-winning home run for the season.  However, Schneemann remains day-to-day after a hamstring injury in game two against UConn.

Behind Schneemann with current hitting streaks are catchers Bronson Larsen at seven games and David Clawson with six games.

All three games at LMU will be broadcast live locally in Utah on ESPN 960 AM with Brent Norton calling the action.  That station’s website along with the site for BYU radio will stream his call. Video on all three games will be streamed on theW.tv on the Internet.

Following the LMU series, the Cougars return to play at Utah on Tuesday (March 28) before hosting Saint Mary’s College in a three-game series in WCC action.

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