PROVO -- For the second consecutive day BYU got behind early and again fell victim to a San Diego State pitcher who went the distance in Saturday's 9-2 loss.

Minnesota freshman Chris Hartshorn surrendered only six hits amongst his 112 pitches and gave up but one walk and hit one batter to improve his record to 5-4. Hartshorn received early help from his SDSU teammates, with the fatal blow coming off Carlo Cota's three-run homer in the second inning.

When the Aztecs knocked three consecutive singles to lead off the third inning, with Cota driving in the second run of that inning, Nate Fernley relieved James Ray on the mound.

Fernley held his ground, only being touched for a pair of runs in the seventh, the only inning when he didn't register one of his five strikeouts.

"Nate deserved better," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "I thought if he could hold them, we would climb right back into the game, but we had some feeble at bats and didn't battle."

Freshman Matt Carson scored BYU's only runs off lead-off doubles both down the left field line in the second and fourth innings. Carson also turned in one of BYU's defensive gems in the fourth when he threw out Edgar Gonzales trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Another defensive kudo registered by BYU came in the sixth inning when third baseman Tyler Perry turned a double play to end the inning. Perry was the only other Cougar to register two hits.

BYU left the bases loaded in the eighth when Michael Davies extended his hitting streak to a team-high nine games.

"I just didn't see the determination to win every at bat," said Law. "We had a lot of outs after hitting first pitches."

BYU falls to 26-25 and 14-13 in the Mountain West Conference, while SDSU improves to 28-25 and 16-10. The Cougars host New Mexico in a three-game series to end the regular season starting this Thursday at 2 p.m.

The Automated ScoreBook
                     San Diego State at Brigham Young Univ.
                   May 06, 2000 at Provo, Utah (Cougar Field)
San Diego State 9 (28-25,16-10 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
PIERCE, Sean lf..........  2  0  1  0   0  0  2  0   0
 LITTERAL, Andy ph/lf....  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   1
GONZALES, Edgar ss.......  5  0  3  0   0  1  1  3   0
RICARDY, Matt 3b.........  5  1  3  0   0  0  2  3   0
MINTER, Jacob dh.........  5  2  2  1   0  3  0  0   1
LOCKHART, Paul rf........  5  2  4  0   0  0  3  0   2
ROGERS, Brandon c........  4  1  2  2   0  2  5  0   0
CHOP, Chad 1b............  5  1  3  1   0  0  7  0   0
REDFERN, Chad cf.........  3  1  1  0   2  1  4  0   0
COTA, Carlo 2b...........  4  1  1  4   0  1  2  2   4
HARTSHORN, Chris p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 41  9 20  8   2  9 27  8   9
Brigham Young Univ. 2 (26-25,14-13 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
COUGHLAN, Cameron dh.....  5  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   2
PETERSON, Craig 1b.......  5  0  0  0   0  1  4  1   1
DAY, Nick lf.............  3  0  1  0   1  0  2  0   0
DAVIES, Michael c........  4  0  1  0   0  0 10  1   1
CARSON, Matt rf..........  4  2  2  0   0  1  3  1   0
KING, Seth ss............  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  1   0
GREENE, Nick cf..........  4  0  0  1   0  1  4  0   4
PERRY, Tyler 3b..........  4  0  2  1   0  0  0  1   0
MATHIS, Nate 2b..........  4  0  0  0   0  0  2  3   1
RAY, James p.............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 FERNLEY, Nate p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  1   0
 CRUMP, Todd p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 36  2  6  2   1  5 27 10   9
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
San Diego State..... 232 000 200 -  9 20  3
Brigham Young Univ.. 010 100 000 -  2  6  2
-------------------------------------------
E - GONZALEZ 2; COTA; CARSON; FERNLEY. DP - Cougars 1. LOB - Aztecs 9;
Cougars 9. 2B - RICARDY; MINTER, JA; LOCKHART; CHOP; CARSON 2. HR - COTA(1).
HBP - KING. SF - ROGERS; COTA. SB - GONZALEZ; CHOP. CS - PIERCE; LOCKHART.
San Diego State        IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
HARTSHORN, Chris....  9.0  6  2  2  1  5 36 38
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
RAY, James..........  2.0 11  7  7  1  2 15 16
FERNLEY, Nate.......  5.2  8  2  1  1  5 21 24
CRUMP, Todd.........  1.1  1  0  0  0  2  5  5
Win - HARTSHORN (5-4).  Loss - RAY (3-4).  Save - None.
HB - HARTSHORN.
Umpires - Home:Dan Weikle  1st:Blake Jensen  3rd:Ron Ridd
Start: 12:00   Time: 2:26   Attendance: 361
Game: BYU51
Game notes:
Game Three of Three in Provo
RAY faced 3 batters in the 3rd.