Larsen's grand slam and Buffo's pitching lead to 6-0 win

STOCKTON, California (April 6, 2017)--Bronson Larsen’s grand slam and Maverik Buffo’s pitching gave BYU baseball a 6-0 victory Thursday afternoon over the University of the Pacific.

Larsen’s grand slam homer came in the fifth inning when the Cougars batted around their order. With two outs in the fifth, Daniel Schneemann’s single drove in Noah Hill who hit a one-out double.

“We played solid baseball today,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said.  “It was a tough hitting day with the wind blowing in, but we put together good at bat after good at bat until we broke through in the fifth.”

The damage in the fifth frame continued with Brennon Anderson getting aboard on a shortstop error before Schneeman’s single. Then Keaton Kringlen was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

With the table set, Larsen swatted the first pitch offering into the teeth of the wind, a blast estimated at 350 feet over the short 317-foot porch and 12-foot-high wall in left field to give BYU a 5-0 lead. It was the third grand slam for BYU this season.

The Cougars added their sixth run in the eighth inning off three consecutive singles, one of which was by Kyle Dean, who extended his hitting streak to a team-leading six games, tying him with Tanner Chauncey. The last of the singles was by Nate Favero to plate pinch runner Brian Hsu.

In his best outing of the season, Buffo threw 123 pitches in eight and one-third innings, retiring the side in order in the second and seventh frames to improve his record to 4-3 and lower his earned run average from 5.95 to 4.91.

“Maverik was good today,” Littlewood said. “He battled through the first three innings and once he found his groove he was pretty unhittable. He did a good job setting the tone for the series.”

The Cougars improved to 15-12 overall and 5-2 in the West Coast Conference, while Pacific fell to 12-15 and 2-8. The game was moved up three hours earlier to avoid inclement weather.

The two teams are scheduled to play games two and three on Friday at 6 p.m. PDT and on Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT, respectively.