Cougars fall to Lions on Saturday

PROVO, Utah — LMU defeated BYU 17-7 in the final game of a three-game WCC series on Saturday at Miller Park.

“It was a little rough today,” BYU interim head coach Trent Pratt said. “Credit to them, they swung the bats well. They had a lot of good swings and we didn’t get the bats going until later in the game. We’ll learn from this and be ready to make a run at the conference tournament next week.”

It turned out to be a staff day on the mound for the Cougars as nine pitchers took the hit with starter Ayden Callahan taking the loss. 

A five-run, second inning off two doubles, two singles and two walks gave the Lions an early lead. LMU tacked on another run in the third for a 6-0 advantage. BYU answered in the bottom half of the third with a Mcintyre doubled to right field that scored Brock Watkins to give the Cougars their first run of the day. Deming then singled up the middle scoring McIntyre to cut the deficit to 6-2. 

LMU scored seven unanswered runs over the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to take a commanding 13-2 lead.

BYU fought back in the bottom of the eighth with five runs to cut the deficit to 13-7. Doubles by McIntyre, Bryan Call and Ozzie Pratt, combined with a walk by Chase Peterson and singles by Alex Sardina and Hayden Leatham fueled the big inning. 

That would be as close as BYU would get as LMU added four runs too its total in the ninth for a final score of 17-7.

Attendance for the Saturday afternoon game was 2,816, the eighth highest crowd in Miller Park history. Three of the four games this week enjoyed crowds over 2,780, including Tuesday's game with Utah that drew Miller Park record of 3,192 fans. 

Notables:
Mitch McIntyre: 2-5, 2 Runs, 2 RBI
Bryan Call: 1-4, 2 RBI, Run
Austin Deming: 2-4, Run, RBI

BYU will face LMU again on Wednesday, May 25, in the opening round of the WCC Baseball Tournament (May 25-28) at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, California.