Wilk's walk-off RBI single lifts BYU over Omaha in home opener

PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball defeated Omaha, 12-11, in the Cougars' home opener at Miller Park on Thursday behind a walk-off RBI single from Jacob Wilk in the tenth inning. 

The Cougars are now 3-6 on the year, while the Mavericks fall to 2-7. Games two of the Omaha series will be played Friday at 3 p.m. MST with the final game on Saturday at Noon MST. 

“We made it closer than it should have been, but a win is a win,” said BYU head coach Trent Pratt. “Wins are hard to come by so we'll take them any way we can. Austin Deming was awesome tonight. He has been locked in all year. Even his outs have been loud. He is playing really good for us right now.”

Game Summary
  •  BYU hit .372 (16-43) versus Omaha at .342 (13-38)
  •  The Cougars scored 12 runs on 16 hits, while the Mavericks scored 11 on 13

BYU Highlights
  •  Austin Deming: 3-6, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 Runs
  •  Easton Jones: 1-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI
  •  Cole Gambill: 4-6, 1 RBI, 3 Runs
  •  Ryan Sepede: 3-4, 1 RBI

Omaha jumped out to an early lead with one run in the first inning off a sacrifice fly. The Cougars answered with a home run in the bottom of the first by Deming to tied the game at 1-1 after an inning of play. 

A two-run double to right center field by Deming, an RBI single by Gambill and a sacrifice fly by Jacob Wilk gave BYU a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the third. 

The Mavericks cut the deficit to 5-2 following a home run to left field in the top of the fifth, but Deming answered right back for the Cougars in the bottom half of the inning with a solo shot to center field, his fourth RBI of the day and fourth home runoff the year. A double by Ryan Sepede, back-to-back walks by Wilk and Tate Gambill loaded the bases for Easton Jones, who then walked to score Sepede. A sacrifice fly by Bryant Ball, and an RBI single by Ozzie Pratt put an exclamation point on a four-run bottom of the fifth inning, giving BYU a 9-2 lead.

A pair of walks and back-to-back RBI singles lead to three runs as the Marvericks cut the deficit to 9-5 in the sixth inning. An RBI double to right center field by Sepede scored Cole Gambill and pushed the BYU lead to 10-5 in the bottom half of the inning. 

A solo home run to left field by Jones, his first as a Cougar, extended the Cougar lead to 11-5 in the seventh. 

Four runs on three hits for the Mavericks in the top of the eighth trimmed the deficit to 11-9. Then two runs on three hits in the top of the ninth tied the game at 11 and sent it to extra innings.

After Sam Beck held Omaha scoreless in the top of the 10th, Wilk's single in the bottom half of the inning scored Cole Gambill, who had singled to right and stole second to set up the winning run for the Cougars.

Sam Beck (1-0) got the win for the Cougars, while Rans Sanders (0-1) took the loss for the Mavericks. 

The two teams will return to action tomorrow in game two of the three-game set. Friday's game is scheduled for 6 p.m. MST and will be broadcast live on the BYU Radio App and BYU Radio 107.9 FM in the northern Utah market, with Jason Shepherd on play-by-play. In addition, the game will be broadcasted on the BYUtv App.