Hale's grand slam paves way to 10-2 defeat of CSU Bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD, California (March 3, 2017)—Sophomore outfielder Brock Hale blasted a grand slam home run to lift BYU baseball to a 10-2 victory Friday night over CSU Bakersfield.

BYU, now 4-5, snapped the Roadrunners’ six-game winning streak, making their record 7-3.

Hale’s two-out granny broke the game open in the sixth inning to increase the Cougars’ lead to 7-1.

Starting pitcher Brady Corless loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, but escaped when he struck out a CSUB batter for out number two and picked off a Roadrunner napping off first base. Corless improved his record to 2-0, striking out five on 88 pitches.

“That start by Brady was just what this team needed,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “He was dominant for 5 2/3 innings and gave our offense a chance to get rolling. We had great at bats throughout the lineup but Brock (Hale) really stepped up big for us tonight. We were pretty solid in all aspects of the game tonight.”

Hale accounted for BYU’s first run with a two-out first-inning single to extend his current streak to 10 games. Hale went 3-for-4 on the evening from the plate. Daniel Schneemann and Bronson Larsen also extended their hitting streaks to five and four games, respectively.

Schneemann produced BYU’s second run with a high infield popup which scored Colton Shaver to make the score 2-0.  Schneemann sliced an RBI gap triple in the fourth as the Cougars took a 3-0 lead. 

Those first three Cougar runs were aided by four CSUB miscues and another error was costly in the three-run ninth.

The final game of the series, a rubber match,  will be played on Saturday at noon PST.