Cougars lose slugfest 13-12 at San Diego

SAN DIEGO – Down three going into the bottom of the ninth, San Diego rallied for four runs to come from behind and beat BYU 13-12 at Fowler Park on Saturday.

“We got down early but I was proud the guys refused to quit,” said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. “It was like a heavy weight fight today. Both teams went toe-to-toe and refused to quit. Tip your hat to San Diego who strung together a couple of hits in their last at bat and found a way to win.” 

Despite the tough loss on Saturday, the Cougars won two of three games in the series from the Toreros, who entered the weekend in first place in the WCC. The two teams combined for 35 hits and 25 runs on Saturday for a total of 86 hits and 56 runs over the three-game series.

San Diego (29-10, 15-6) jumped out to an early lead, scoring one run in the first inning and six in the second to take a 7-0 advantage.

Facing a huge deficit, Cole Gambill led off the fourth inning with a blast over the rightfield fence to get the Cougars on the board. Following a single by Joshua Cowden, Brock Watkins then homered to deep center to cut the lead to 7-3. With two outs, Cooper Vest, Mitch McIntyre, Jacob Rogers and Andrew Pintar all singled to keep the momentum going.

A double by Gambill down the leftfield line emptied the bases and tied the game at 7-7. A single by Hayden Leatham then plated Gambill to give BYU an 8-7 lead. The lead didn’t last long as the Toreros tied the game at 8-8 in the bottom half of the fourth.

BYU (19-24, 11-10) scored runs in both the fifth and sixth innings for a 10-8 lead, but San Diego once again answered in the bottom of the sixth to cut the Cougars lead to 10-9.

After a scoreless seventh inning, BYU scored two in the eighth when Pintar doubled down the leftfield line and Gambill singled to right to score Pintar. Leatham then single up the middle advancing Gambill to third, who would later score on a sacrifice fly by Cowden to increase the lead to 12-9.

San Diego strung together three hits and a walk in the bottom of the ninth as the Cougars' defense struggled to get outs. With one out and the winning run on third, Shane McGuire’s sacrifice fly to rightfield scored Angelo Peraza to give the Toreros the come-from-behind victory, 13-12.

BYU travels to Pacific, May 13-15, for its final road series of the 2021 season. The Thursday-Friday games are scheduled for 6 p.m. PT, with the Saturday matchup at 1 p.m. All three games will be streamed live on the WCC Network. The games will also be broadcast live on the BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app—with Greg Wrubell and Tuckett Slade on the call.