PROVO, Utah –  BYU took down No. 19 Gonzaga 11-2 on Thursday night at Miller Park led by multiple-runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

"We worked really hard on hitting high velocity pitching in practice this week," said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. "Our guys did a great job of staying on fastballs and not chasing pitches out of the zone tonight. We also did a good job with two strikes and it showed in the final results." 

The Cougars scored seven of their 11 runs in the seventh and eighth innings, led by an Alex Sardina two-RBI double with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and Ryan Sepede’s three-run homer in the eighth.

Gonzaga opened scoring in the first inning when a BYU fielding error led to a base hit and 1-0 lead. The Cougars ended the threat on a Mitch McIntyre rocket from center field to home, where Collin Rueter applied the tag for the final out of the inning.

BYU responded with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first when McIntyre scored on a sacrifice fly from Cole Gambill and Hayden Leatham scored on an RBI double from Sepede for 2-1 lead. 

After neither team scored in the second, third and fourth innings, BYU got on the board again in the bottom of the fifth as pinch-runner Dawson Hall came in for Jacob Wilk and scored from second on a Leatham’s RBI single through the right side for a 3-1 lead. 

Sepede hit his second double of the night to open the sixth inning and scored on a Brock Watkins double to centerfield to push the lead to 4-1. 

The Bulldogs scored a run in the seven with a double and back-to-back ground-ball outs to cut the score to 4-2. 

BYU responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning when Ozzie Pratt got on base with a bunt single and later scored on a safety squeeze from Leatham to increase the Cougar lead. Following walks by Gambill and Sepede, Sardina doubled down the right field line, scoring Leatham and Gambill for an 7-2 advantage.

BYU blew the game wide open in the eighth with a McIntyre RBI triple that scored Pratt, followed by the Sepede bomb to center field that scored Leatham and Jacob Rogers and gave BYU a 12-2 win over the nationally-ranked Zags.

The Cougars take on Gonzaga in game two of the three-game series Friday night at Miller Park at 6 p.m. MDT. The game will be broadcast live on BYUtv and the BYUtv App. BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio 107.9 FM, BYU Cougars App and BYUcougars.com—will also carry the game live.

PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball welcomes No. 19 Gonzaga to Provo on March 22-24 for a three-game West Coast Conference series at Miller Park. The Thursday and Friday games are scheduled for 6 p.m. MDT, while the Saturday contest will begin at Noon. 

The Cougars are coming off a 12-5 win over Utah Valley in Orem on Tuesday evening. Home runs by Alex Sardina and Cole Gambill paced the Cougars, who collected 12 hits on the night.

BYU is 10-7 on the year and 1-2 in conference. The Cougars played four games last week, going 2-2 with wins over rival Utah 10-3 on Tuesday and WCC foe Portland 6-2 on Thursday, before dropping the final two games of the weekend series to the Pilots 11-1 and 3-1. 

Gonzaga enters the weekend series at 14-5 on the year and 3-0 in WCC play. The Zags are tied for the conference lead with LMU. The Bulldogs have won seven of their last 10 games, including a three-game sweep of then No. 4 ranked Oklahoma State. GU dropped its season home opener on Tuesday to Oregon. The Ducks put up eight runs in the first four innings and cruised to a 9-5 win.

Thursday will be the 59th meeting between BYU and Gonzaga. The Cougars are 26-32 all-time versus the Bulldogs and 14-19 since joining the WCC in 2011-12. The first meeting between the two schools was a three-game series played at BYU on March 4-5, 1971, with the Cougars winning two of the three games. The Zags swept the most recent series 3-0 in Spokane, Washington in 2021. 

BYUtv will broadcast the Friday and Saturday games live, with a simulcast on the BYUtv App. Thursday’s contest will air solely on the BYUtv App. All three games will also be live on the BYU Radio Network—107.9 FM, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars App. Live stats are available through Statbroadcast.com.

2022 WCC Baseball Standings