Cougars drop game two of series at Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — BYU baseball dropped game two of its three-game conference series with Santa Clara 11-3 on Friday at Stephen Schott Stadium.

The Broncos jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the second inning on four hits, including a two-run RBI single by Michael O’Hara. Santa Clara (11-14, 4-4), who finished the day seven for 15 (.467) with runners in scoring position, added seven more runs in the third inning on six hits and a couple of Cougar errors to increase the lead to 11-0.

“Santa Clara is big, strong and have a lot of senior experience,” said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. “They are a seasoned team and they showed it today. After getting down early, we challenged the guys to battle back and try to win the rest of the innings. Andrew [Pintar] and Cole [Gambill] gave us some real good at bats and hopefully we can take that momentum into tomorrow.”

BYU (8-15, 4-4) got on the board in the fourth inning with a leadoff single by Cooper Vest and a one-out home run to leftfield by second baseman Pintar. With one out and nobody on in the sixth, Pitar homered again to left center to finish the scoring for both teams at 11-3.

After struggling early on the mound, Cougar relievers Cooper McKeehan, Mikade Johnson, Drew Zimmerman and Peyton Cole combined to hold Santa Clara scoreless after the third inning, giving up just two hits to the Broncos over the last five innings. SCU has now won four-straight games, while BYU has dropped its last four.

Player Highlights
•    Pintar: 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs
•    Gambill: 2-3, 1 BB

BYU is back in action at Stephen Schott Stadium on Saturday, at 1:00 p.m. PDT for the final game of the three-game series with the Broncos. The game will be broadcast live on WCC Network, as well as the BYU Sports Network on BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.