Cougars roll in 10-3 win over rival Utah

PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball defeated rival Utah 10-3 at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Home runs by catcher Collin Reuter in the second inning and right fielder Cole Gambill in the third set the tempo early for the Cougars, who collected 12 hits on the night.

“We really swung the bats well tonight,” said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. “I thought our defense was great, and we pitched really well tonight. The guys seemed relaxed from the start and didn’t show any anxiousness you typically see in a rivalry game. Overall, it was a great team win.”

Gambill got things started for the Cougars with a lead-off walk in the top of the second inning and scored on a triple to center field by Alex Sardina. Reuter then homered to left center to give the Cougars an early 3-0 lead. 

BYU (9-5) scored two more runs in the third. Andrew Pintar started the inning off with a single to right center and scored on Gambill’s opposite-field home run to right center for 5-0 lead. 

Back-to-back singles by Austin Deming and Brock Watkins, combined with a walk by Mitch McIntyre, loaded the bases for Hayden Leatham, who singled through the left side for two more Cougar runs in the fourth. McIntyre then advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a Pintar groundball for an 8-0 lead. 

BYU tacked on two more runs in the sixth on hits by Watkins, Gambill and Josh Cowden, combined with a walk by Leatham and McIntyre, who was hit by a pitch. Pintar’s fielders-choice groundball scored Watkins and later Pintar scored on a Gambill single to left center. 

Utah (11-4-1) got on the board late in the eighth inning with three runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batter to finish the scoring at 10-3. The Cougars are now 7-0 on the season when scoring at least six runs. 

The Cougar pitching rotation of Bryce Robison (2.0 innings), Jake Porter (1.0), Ayden Callahan (1.0), Peyton Cole (2.0), Nate Dahle (1.0), Boston Mabeus (.2), Carter Foss (.1) and Justis Reiser (1.0) held the Utes to three runs on six hits. Robison got the win for BYU to improve to 3-0 on the year. For freshman right-hander Porter, it was his first appearance of 2022.  

Notables
  •  Alex Sardina: 2-4, 1R, 1RBI
  •  Cole Gambill: 2-2, 2R, 3RBI
  •  Collin Reuter 1-1, 1R, 2RBI

The Cougars now head to Oregon, to kick off West Coast Conference play with Portland. The weekend series with the Pilots (11-4) is scheduled for March 17-19 at Joe Etzel Field. The game will be streamed live on the WCC Digital Network, and broadcast by the BYU Radio Network on FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.