San Diego (April 20, 2002)--Reliever Royce Ring shut down BYU Saturday afternoon for the third time in as many days to give San Diego State a 7-6 victory.

The hard-throwing lefty picked up his 14th save of the season when he appeared in the eighth inning with two on and two out to record a strikeout.

Twice the Cougars had one-run leads in the game, but the first-place Aztecs battled back to take a five-and-a-half-game lead over BYU in the Mountain West Conference. The No. 28 Aztecs are 33-13 overall and 15-3 in the league close out their home conference season by hosting Utah this week.

For the third consecutive time in San Diego, BYU took a 1-0 lead only to see if vanish in the bottom of the first inning. The Aztecs scored four thanks to Rielly Embrey's three-run double. The Cougars got on the board first when Cameron Coughlan singled to left field. After many pickoff attempts, Coughlan advanced to second on a balk and scored off Dave Jensen's single.

BYU nibbled away at the lead when Doug Jackson stole second and scored on Coughlan's third-inning single. Coughlan was caught stealing when the Aztecs pitched outside to Jensen. In the bottom of that frame, Cougar starter Paul Jacinto struck out two in a row to end the inning.

Back-to-back doubles by Ranger Wiens and Kevin Bills added another run in the fourth. Wiens hit his second consecutive double in the fifth to score Matt Carson. Later in the fifth, Han Yi hit a two-out double with the bases loaded to put the Cougars up again, 6-5.

The Aztecs chased Jacinto from the mound in the sixth when they drove in two runs off Jeff Stone to take a 7-6 lead. The Cougars threatened in the eighth when Coughlan got on again and swiped his 18th stolen base of the season. SDSU changed pitchers in an attempt to quell Carson, but they ended up walking him.

Enter Ring, the seventh Aztec pitcher of the day, who put Rob Itri down with three pitches, all strikes, to end the eighth.

BYU countered with its ace reliever Tyler Dabo in the eighth. The Aztecs threatened to score with two on and two out, but Itri made a leaping catch of a line drive to end the inning.

With Ring getting BYU out in the ninth, striking out two of three, he helped the Aztecs sweep BYU in six games this season. A possible rematch could occur when the Cougars host the MWC Championships on May 22-25. Also, for the third straight game, BYU out-hit SDSU, 13-11 in Saturday's action.

The Cougars, now 16-23-1 overall and 9-9 in the MWC, return home to host eight consecutive games. BYU is next in action this Thursday to start a three-game series with the Air Force Academy at 7 p.m.

Brigham Young at San Diego State
                                  Apr 20, 2002 at San Diego, Calif. (Tony Gwynn Stadium)
                          Brigham Young 6 (16-23-1,15-3 MWC)
                          Name (Pos)                 AB  R  H RBI  BB SO PO  A
                          JACKSON, Doug cf..........  5  1  1  0    0  2  2  0
                          COUGHLAN, Cameron dh......  5  1  3  1    0  0  0  0
                          JENSEN, Dave 1b...........  4  0  1  1    1  0  4  0
                          CARSON, Matt rf...........  4  1  2  0    1  0  2  0
                          ITRI, Rob 2b..............  4  1  2  0    1  1  2  1
                          WIENS, Ranger ss..........  5  2  2  1    0  1  2  1
                          BILLS, Kevin 3b...........  4  0  1  1    1  1  0  0
                          WILKES, Adam c............  3  0  0  0    1  2 10  1
                           WEINGARTEN, Mike ph....... 1  0  0  0    0  1  0  0
                          YI, Han lf................  3  0  1  2    1  0  2  0
                          JACINTO, Paul p...........  0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                           STONE, Jeff p............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1
                           FERNLEY, Sam p............ 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0                    
                           DABO, Tyler p............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                          Totals.................... 38  6 13  6    6  8 24  4
                          San Diego State 7 (33-13,9-9 MWC)
                          Name (Pos)                 AB  R  H RBI  BB SO PO  A
                          LEE, Taber ss.............  3  1  2  1    2  0  3  1
                          COTA, Carlo 2b............  5  0  2  2    0  1  2  1
                          STEPHENS, Jon 1b..........  4  1  1  1    1  1  4  0
                          MCLINTOCK, Jake rf........  4  1  1  0    0  0  3  0
                          CORONA, Chad 3b...........  5  0  1  0    0  4  1  1
                          WILSON, Ryan lf...........  2  1  0  0    2  1  1  0
                           BURT, Landon ph/lf........ 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                          EMBREY, Rielly dh.........  5  1  3  3    0  0  0  0
                          MANFRED, Brian c..........  3  1  1  0    1  1  7  2
                          GWYNN, Anthony cf.........  2  1  0  0    1  2  6  0
                          CARQUE, Joe p.............  0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1
                           FIEDLER, Erik p........... 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1
                           HARANG, Daryl p........... 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                           HARTSHORN, Chris p........ 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                           JENSON, Drew p............ 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                           MOAT, Mike p.............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                           RING, Royce p............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0
                          Totals.................... 33  7 11  7    7 10 27  7
                          Score by innings:                      R  H  E
                          ----------------------------------------------
                          Brigham Young         101 130 000   -  6 13  0
                          San Diego State       410 002 00    -  7 11  0
                          ----------------------------------------------
                          DP - SDSU 1. LOB - BYU 11; SDSU 12.
                          2B - CARSON,M; WIENS 2; BILLS; YI; COTA; EMBREY.
                          SB - JACKSON; COUGHLAN; GWYNN. CS - COUGHLAN; LEE.
                          SH - GWYNN.
                          Brigham Young          IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  AB BF
                          JACINTO, Paul.......  5.0   7   7   7   5   6  21 26
                          STONE, Jeff.........  0.2   2   0   0   0   0   3  5
                          FERNLEY, Sam........  1.1   2   0   0   1   3   9 12             
                          DABO, Tyler.........  1.0   0   0   0   1   1   3  5
                          San Diego State        IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  AB BF
                          CARQUE, Joe.........  3.0   7   3   3   1   0  15 16
                          FIEDLER, Erik.......  1.2   4   3   3   2   2   9 11
                          HARANG, Daryl.......  1.0   1   0   0   1   1   4  5
                          HARTSHORN, Chris....  1.2   1   0   0   1   2   5  6
                          JENSON, Drew........  0.1   0   0   0   0   0   1  1
                          MOAT, Mike..........  0.0   0   0   0   1   0   0  1
                          RING, Royce.........  1.1   0   0   0   0   3   4  4
                          Win - HARTSHORN 1-0.  Loss - JACINTO 2-2.  Save - RING (14).
                          WP - JACINTO. BK - CARQUE.
                          HBP - by STONE (MCLINTOCK); by DABO (BURT).
                          Umpires - Home:Rob Franceschiello  1st:Joe Burleson  3rd:Ray Belfiore
                          Start: 1:05 pm   Time: 3:38   Attendance: 723
                          CARQUE faced 2 batters in the 4th.
                          JACINTO faced 2 batters in the 6th.
                          MOAT faced 1 batter in the 8th.