BYU vs. Utah Valley game 2 box score

OREM, Utah (March 27, 2018)—Home runs by Brennon Anderson and Brian Hsu headlined BYU baseball’s 14-2 victory Tuesday evening at Utah Valley University in the UCCU Crosstown Clash.  

“I thought we played well tonight,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “Our defense was great. Our pitchers did a nice job.

“Overall, one through nine I was real proud of our guys. B (Anderson) got us off to a good start with his grand slam.”

Anderson said he belted “a perfect pitch, fastball” on a 3-1 count for a two-fence grand slam in the second inning for a 4-0 lead.

Anderson’s teammates scored two more runs before he got up for more offense. Brock Hale legged it into third base ahead of the throw from left field off Keaton Kringlen’s one-out single, then scored on a passed ball in the third inning. Hsu knocked a solo homer in the fourth inning over the same left field fence for a 6-1 lead.

Anderson turned his second double play of the night when he tagged Pacen Hayes running to second, then flipped to Hsu at first in the fifth.

UVU’s Trevor Howell hit a solo homer over a leaping leftfielder Mitch McIntyre for a 6-2 margin in the fifth frame. Then Anderson roped a two-RBI double with bases loaded in the sixth to plate David Clawson and Jarrett Perns, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single as BYU soared to a 10-2 lead.

Reliever Kendall Motes earned his first victory of the season as BYU improved its record to 13-10 heading into this weekend’s series at Pepperdine. UVU falls to 9-13 as the two-game series concluded against the Cougars before a crowd of 2,108 fans.

Game notes for UVU, Pepperdine

As the month of March concludes, BYU baseball finishes its series with Utah Valley and plays its first league road games with three games at Pepperdine.

Tuesday’s 6 p.m. MDT game at UVU will likely be an all-staff day for the pitching rotation for both teams in the UCCU Crosstown Clash. UVU has a 9-12 record, BYU is 12-9 and Pepperdine is 10-13. The Cougars and the Waves each have 2-4 records in the West Coast Conference.

“Utah Valley is always a big game for us,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “Traditionally, we haven’t played well at Pepperdine. It will be a challenge at Pepperdine because we have put ourselves in a situation where we need to beat good teams on the road.

“I was proud of the way our guys played last week. We are resilient and saw some good things. We came out of our corner fighting, and that’s all I can ask of our team,” Littlewood said after an 11-game home stand.

BYU will likely continue its pitching rotation at Pepperdine of having Jordan Wood (2-1, 3.43), Hayden Rogers (3-2, 5.14) and Blake Inouye (1-2, 6.04) as starters in games Thursday and Friday at 3 p.m. PDT and on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Cougars posted a 3-4 record since beating UVU 9-3 earlier this month, while the Wolverines have won four of their last six games.