PROVO, Utah – Brock Hale, Bronson Larsen and Tanner Chauncey slugged home runs in BYU baseball's 11-5 win to seal its three-game sweep of San Francisco and maintain the West Coast Conference lead on Saturday at Larry H. Miller Field.

"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said. "We can score in any inning. A lot of teams have to get to the middle of their order to score, but we have good hitters all through the lineup and can wear pitchers down."

The Cougars (25-14, 14-4 West Coast Conference), who regained the league lead after Friday's results, stayed on top with their fifth-straight win. The Dons fell to 22-23, 7-14.

After San Francisco took a 1-0 advantage in the first, the BYU bats tagged Don starter Daniel Slominski for six runs in the third inning. Brock Hale drove a three-run homer into the pine trees over the centerfield fence and Bronson Larsen crushed a solo shot over the left field scoreboard.

BYU left fielder Keaton Kringlen flashed the leather for the final out in the bottom of the third inning with a leaping catch up against the wall on a ball that possibly would have left the yard.

Daniel Schneemann’s second sacrifice fly upped the Cougars’ lead to 7-1 in the fourth inning.

San Francisco chipped away, with two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to cut its deficit to 7-4.

Chauncey launched the third home run of his career in the seventh inning on a solo drive to right-center that hit on the top of the fence and bounced over. Larsen singled home Hale for BYU’s ninth run in the same inning. Favero then hit a liner to right field to bring home two more Cougars for an 11-4 lead.

Cougar starter Hayden Rogers (5-1) went 5.2 innings for the win and surrendered four runs on seven hits. Keaton Cenatiempo relieved him and got two outs before Aaron Cross took over. Cross pitched two hitless innings before Mason Marshall was brought on for the ninth inning and gave up one run before getting out of a jam with a strikeout and groundout.

"Our bullpen did a good job all three days," Littlewood said. "It was key to get guys out there that they hadn't seen, like Aaron (Cross), and he got six big outs for us."

BYU plays on the road Tuesday in the UCCU Crosstown Clash against Utah Valley at 6 p.m. MDT.

As the topsy-turvy nature of the West Coast Conference baseball race continues, BYU hosts San Francisco in a three-game series starting Thursday.

The Cougars (22-14 overall and 11-4 WCC) could return to first place if they sweep USF and a loss were to happen to both league leaders Gonzaga and LMU. Winning the series against USF would give BYU its fifth tiebreaker over teams beneath its third-place standing.

With rain in the forecast, the  Cougars will meet the challenge from USF one game at a time.

“San Francisco is a well coached team and Coach Giarratano always has his guys ready to play," BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. "This will be a tough series and an important one for us as we look to stay in the top four in the conference."

The Cougars knocked league-leading San Diego out of first place by winning the series last week over the Toreros.

BYU is playing well as a team, with a couple of items of note. Brock Hale returned to the batting order last week after being out of the lineup all of April recuperating from an injury. Colton Shaver's batting average has climbed nearly 100 points from when league play began last month and he leads the team with a current seven-game hitting streak. Plus Tanner Chauncey is now No. 3 in the NCAA as the toughest batter to strike out.

Pitcher Brady Corless remains undefeated at 5-0 after fellow relievers and hitters rallied for a first-ever win at USD. Corless will start Friday’s game at 6 p.m. MDT and Maverik Buffo and Hayden Rogers are the Cougar starters for the opening and closing games of the USF series, respectively at 6 p.m. Thursday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Following the series with USF, BYU plays at Utah Valley on Tuesday in the UCCU Cross Town Clash, then travels to Santa Clara.

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