IRVINE, Calif.—Brock Whitney drove in five runs, three in the four-run sixth, to lift BYU to a 6-1 victory Friday night at UC Irvine.

Whitney, a sophomore first baseman, hit a two-out double in the seventh to clear the bases and give the Cougars that 6-1 margin. Dillon Robinson led off the seventh with a double and scored when Tanner Chauncey hit a one-out, bases loaded single to give BYU a 3-1 lead.

“Tanner continues to impress with his at bats,” said BYU coach Vance Law.  “Brock Whitney’s big two-out RBI were pluses for us.  Any time you get two-out RBI, it can really help us win games.  Good pitching, defense and timely hitting are a formula we’ve been looking for.”

Whitney singled in BYU’s first two runs, scoring the freshman Chauncey in both the second and the sixth for the 1-0 and 2-1 leads, respectively.  Chauncey and Whitney went 4-for-5 and 3-for-4 on the night from the plate, respectively.

Cougar lefty Mark Anderson improved his record to 3-0 and was effective in the first five innings until he beaned three consecutive batters in the sixth to exit the mound.

“Mark Anderson got us deeper into the game and Milke (Matt) got a huge out for us in the sixth,” said Law.  “Our whole team had much better at bats.”

That victory ended a three-game skid and evened BYU’s record at 5-5.

The Anteaters (7-6) hosts BYU in the finale of the three-game series on Saturday.

Both BYU and host UC Irvine look to bounce back from a pair of baseball losses last week as they start a three-game series Thursday.

The Anteaters (6-5) have been ranked No. 21, 24 and 30 in previous weeks, but are out of the polls this week due to a pair of losses at Baylor.  Meanwhile, BYU (4-4) has hopes for a better showing after a pair of losses at No. 4 Arkansas.

“We’re excited to get back at it again,” said BYU coach Vance Law after a rare weekend off from games.  “This will be a good challenge against a good club.  Hopefully we learned a few things at Arkansas.”

The starting BYU pitching remains the same as those who produced a 4-2 record going into the Arkansas series.  Chris Capper (0-2, 4.91), Mark Anderson (2-0, 2.13) and Adam Miller (1-0, 0.00) will start on the mound for games Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Miller is among five pitchers on the BYU staff with a 0.00 ERA thus far, including freshman Mason Marshall who has two saves in 7.1 innings.

In the first NCAA statistics of this season, BYU was 59th in fielding and 63rd in triples. Austin Hall was 13th in triples and Miller was tied with many at No. 1 in ERA at 0.00.

The games at 6:30, 6:30 and 1 p.m. PST, will be broadcast live on the Internet through links on www.byucougars.com and may be broadcast live locally in California on KUCI FM (88.9) depending on the outcome of UC Irvine basketball games in the Big West Tournament.

BYU leads the series, 7-6, against UC Irvine, having split the last time they played in 2005.  The Anteaters won the first meeting in 1970.