Utes' First Inning Too Much

PROVO -- A never-ending top of the first inning Friday night doomed BYU as Utah jumped out to a 12-0 lead on nine hits en route to a 17-2 victory.

The Utes scored so many runs in the first inning that the BYU scoreboard could only post a two instead of the 12 runs Utah actually earned.

Utah's bats came alive early and often in the first against BYU pitcher Ryan Adams forcing Coach Vance Law to go to the bullpen with no outs for pitcher Scott Koffman.

"I felt if we would have stopped them at seven runs we would have had a chance. But a bad hop over Matt's (Carson) head in right and the next thing you know, we're down 12 runs," Coach Law said. "I've been around baseball a long time, and I've never seen a team go through their line up the way they did in the first inning."

Dave Jensen returned to his hot hitting as the Cougars managed to get on the board in the bottom of the first on a bloop single to left field that scored Doug Jackson.

Donald Hawes stretched the Ute lead in the fourth to 13-1 with a deep home run to left center in front of the second-largest crowd of 2,863 at Larry H. Miller Field.

On a night when not much else could go wrong, three hit batters for the Utes by the BYU pitching staff set a new Mountain West Conference record. Adam Castleton was hit three times by Cougar pitchers to set the new league mark.

Utah added two more runs in the fifth on a Pannier double up the middle that scored Castleton and a Mike Basham single to right that knocked Pannier home to make the score 15-1.

Carson scored in the sixth on an infield error by Utah shortstop Brett Baldwin shrinking the Ute lead to 15-2. But, Donnie Saba's third hit of the game in the eighth brought Ciaramella home and Jake Jordison's double scored Saba making the score 17-2.

Sibling rivalry abounded in the seventh and eighth innings when Cougar pitcher Jacob Chrisman faced his brother Jed for the first time in both players' baseball careers. The elder Chrisman popped out to the catcher in the seventh and struck out looking in the eighth.

"This was the first time I ever pitched against my brother besides batting practice," Chrisman said. "I popped him up the first time, so I knew he'd give me a hassle if I didn't challenge him, so I just threw him three straight fast balls and luckily it went my way."

The Cougars made one last charge in the ninth with a leadoff double by Jake Stubblefield. Jackson's third hit of the game, an infield single, scored Stubblefield, but the Cougars scored too little too late falling a half game behind San Diego State for first place in the MWC.

BYU falls to 12-17-1, 6-4 in the conference while the Utes improve to 20-15, 5-6 in league play.

Both teams meet again Saturday evening at 8 p.m. in a game delayed one hour because of General Conference.

The Automated ScoreBook
                   University of Utah at Brigham Young Univ.
               Apr 05, 2002 at Provo, Utah (Larry H Miller Field)
University of Utah 17 (20-15,5-6 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
CIARAMELLA, Matt cf......  4  3  3  0   2  0  1  0   0
SABA, Donnie lf..........  5  3  2  3   1  1  3  0   1
CASTLETON,Adam 2b........  3  2  1  0   0  2  2  3   0
WEESE, Nate 1b...........  4  1  1  0   1  1  8  1   2
 JORDISON, Jake ph/1b....  1  0  1  1   0  0  2  0   0
PANNIER, Brit rf.........  3  3  2  4   1  0  0  0   0
 CHRISMAN, Jed ph/rf.....  2  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   1
WESTFALL, Mike 3b........  5  1  3  4   0  0  0  2   0
 BIESINGER, Brandon 3b...  1  0  0  0   0  0  1  1   0
BASHAM, Mike dh..........  6  1  2  1   0  0  0  0   3
HAWES, Donald c..........  5  2  1  2   1  2  5  1   2
BALDWIN, Brett ss........  5  1  1  1   0  0  1  2   0
 MARTINEZ, Brady ph/ss...  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   1
RUSHTON, Cheyenne p......  0  0  0  0   0  0  3  2   0
Totals................... 45 17 17 16   6  7 27 12  10
Brigham Young Univ. 3 (12-17-1,6-4 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug lf/cf......  5  0  3  1   0  1  4  0   0
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b.....  3  1  0  0   0  0  0  1   2
 YI, Han 2b..............  2  0  1  0   0  0  0  3   1
CARSON, Matt rf..........  4  1  0  0   0  1  3  0   0
JENSEN, Dave 1b/lf.......  4  0  2  1   0  0  4  0   0
ITRI, Rob 3b.............  2  0  0  0   0  0  0  2   1
 BILLS, Kevin 3b.........  2  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  2  0  0  0   0  1  1  1   0
 THURGOOD, Ryan ss.......  2  0  0  0   0  1  0  1   2
CHAMBERS, Ryan cf........  2  0  2  0   0  0  2  0   0
 STUBBLEFIELD, Jake 1b...  2  1  1  0   0  0  5  0   1
WILKES, Adam dh..........  4  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  2  0  1  0   0  0  3  0   1
 WEINGARTEN, Mike c......  2  0  0  0   0  0  4  1   0
ADAMS, Ryan p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 KOFFMAN, Scott p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 CHRISMAN, Jacob p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
Totals................... 38  3 10  2   0  5 27 10   8
Score by Innings                       R  H  E
----------------------------------------------
University of Utah.. (12)00 120 020 - 17 17  4
Brigham Young Univ.. 1   00 001 001 -  3 10  3
----------------------------------------------
E - CASTLETON; WEESE; BALDWIN; RUSHTON; CARSON M.; BILLS; ADAMS. DP - Utes
1. LOB - Utes 10; BYU Cougars 8. 2B - CIARAMELLA; SABA 2; CASTLETON;
JORDISON; PANNIER 2; STUBBLEFIELD; BIRKELAND. 3B - CHAMBERS. HR - HAWES(5).
HBP - CASTLETON 3. SB - CASTLETON; WEESE; BASHAM; COUGHLAN.
University of Utah     IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
RUSHTON, Cheyenne...  9.0 10  3  2  0  5 38 38
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
ADAMS, Ryan.........  0.0  6  8  8  0  0  7  8
KOFFMAN, Scott......  5.0  6  7  3  4  3 21 27
CHRISMAN, Jacob.....  4.0  5  2  2  2  4 17 19
Win - RUSHTON (5-2).  Loss - ADAMS (2-4).  Save - None.
WP - RUSHTON; KOFFMAN; CHRISMAN. HBP - by ADAMS (CASTLETON); by KOFFMAN
(CASTLETON); by KOFFMAN (CASTLETON). PB - WEINGARTEN.
Umpires - HP: John Cortez  1B: Terry Balser  3B: Ray Belfiore
Start: 7:01   Time: 2:46   Attendance: 2863
Game notes:
Game 2 of 3.
ADAMS faced 8 batters in the 1st.