USD sweeps BYU with 13-4 win on Saturday

SAN DIEGO — No. 29 San Diego strengthened its grip on first place in the West Coast Conference on Saturday afternoon with a 13-4 victory over BYU baseball.

As it had the previous two games, San Diego (16-9 overall, 8-1 in West Coast Conference) jumped out to an early lead, but the Cougars (11-16, 4-5) did battle back once to narrow that gap to 6-3 in the fourth inning.

“We just didn't have an answer for USD this weekend,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “They hit everyone and everything we threw at them, played good defense, and pitched it extremely well. 

“It was nice to see Brady (Corless) come in and throw well. We really need get our pitching staff rolling again and pitching with some confidence.

“On the offensive side we need to do a better job of competing with two strikes and put more balls in play.”

That offense generated a pair of runs in the fourth when Eric Urry doubled for the second straight inning. Urry led off with a double in the third and scored BYU’s first run that inning on Brennon Lund’s double. Then in the fourth, Urry doubled again to right field, scoring Colton Shaver and scored a second time when Cole Wilstead doubled him home.

Lund’s double extended his hitting streak to six consecutive games.

“It's very disappointing to know we came in with a chance to be in first place and are going home empty handed,” Littlewood said of his team who hosts Portland in a three-game series starting Thursday.

“We also know there is a lot of season remaining and the long term goal is to be in the top four at the end.”

A non-league game on Monday afternoon at San Diego State gives a rested BYU an opportunity against the Aztecs who will have played at UNLV on Sunday. The BYU-SDSU game will be broadcast live on Radio 960 AM and live online BYU Radio.