Lapses, Outage in Home Opening Loss

PROVO -- Defensive lapses caused BYU to drop a 17-8 baseball game Thursday evening in its home opener at Larry H. Miller Field against San Diego State.

The loss ties the Cougars and Aztecs at 3-1 for second place going into Friday night's contest and its sting was felt throughout the night for BYU.

A throwing error in an attempt to turn a double play in the first inning resulted in loading the bases as SDSU scored seven runs in that first inning.

"You can't spot a good pitcher like Dunwell (Chris) that many runs," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "We didn't give Jeff (Mousser) much defensive support."

Mousser, who fell to 3-2, surrendered 13 runs, but only two of them were earned as the Cougars committed four errors in the first four innings.

The Cougars were stalled in their efforts to get something going in the second inning when Matt Carson led off with an apparent triple to left center field. However, the first umpire ruled Carson missed touching first base and the Cougar slugger was called out on an Aztec appeal.

"Matt told me he slipped, but touched the base with his hand," said Law, whose Cougars were down 7-1 at that point. "The umpire said he didn't even come close. It would have been nice to have his triple stem the tide a bit at that point."

The bad luck continued in third inning when Mousser was called on a balk, but the Cougar hurler fielded the next play to get the out.

BYU got on the scoreboard when Ranger Wiens beat out a slow roller to second and was doubled in by Doug Jackson?s drive to the left field wall.

Then a 20-minute delay because of a power outage with two-out in the top of the fifth inning had some of the 1,176 fans joking the Cougars pulled the plug as the Aztecs were up 14-1 by that juncture. When the lights finally came back on, the Cougars started to score some runs.

Rob Itri drove in Cameron Coughlan and a two-run single by pinch-hitter Kevin Bills made the score 15-4 at the end of six innings. Itri scored again in the eighth on a double with a two-base error which allowed him to score his second false inside-the-park-home run of the season.

The Cougars scored another two runs in the ninth off Coughlan's one-out triple, but it left him stranded at third.

"I've prided myself with teams who play for nine innings," said Law. "We kept battling even in the ninth, but we played lousy defense in the beginning.

The loss puts the Cougars at 9-13-1, while SDSU improves to 19-9.

The Automated ScoreBook
                          SDSU at Brigham Young Univ.
                Mar 21, 2002 at Provo, Utah (Larry Miller Field)
San Diego State 17 (19-9,3-1 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
LEE, Taber ss............  6  0  3  3   0  1  2  2   0
COTA, Carlo 2b...........  6  1  1  0   0  0  1  5   3
CORONA, Chad 3b..........  6  4  4  2   0  0  0  0   0
STEPHENS, Jonathan 1b....  3  2  1  0   2  0  8  0   0
MCLINTOCK, Jake rf.......  6  3  3  0   0  0  2  0   0
HILL, Josh lf............  5  1  1  2   0  2  1  0   1
 REDFERN, Chad lf........  1  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
MANFRED, Brian c.........  5  3  2  2   1  2  7  1   2
EMBREY, Rielly dh........  5  2  2  3   0  2  0  0   1
GWYNN, Anthony cf........  3  1  2  2   1  0  5  0   0
DUNWELL, Chris p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 JENSON, Drew p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 HARTSHORN, Chris p......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 46 17 19 14   4  7 27  9   8
Brigham Young Univ. 8 (9-13-1,3-1 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug cf.........  5  1  2  1   0  0  4  0   0
COUGHLAN, Cameron lf.....  4  1  2  2   1  1  2  0   0
JENSEN, Dave 1b..........  4  2  1  0   1  0  6  0   2
CARSON, Matt rf..........  5  0  0  0   0  2  2  0   1
ITRI, Rob 2b.............  4  2  3  1   0  1  2  2   0
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake 3b....  2  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 BILLS, Kevin ph/3b......  2  0  1  2   0  1  0  0   0
CHAMBERS, Ryan dh........  4  0  1  0   0  0  0  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  2  0  0  0   0  0  6  1   0
 YI, Han ph..............  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   2
 WILKES, Adam c..........  0  1  0  0   0  0  2  0   0
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  3  1  1  0   0  0  3  4   0
 THURGOOD, Ryan ss.......  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
MOUSSER, Jeff p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 GARCIA, Jason p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 WARD, Matt p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 37  8 11  6   2  7 27 10   5
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
San Diego State..... 701 520 101 - 17 19  2
Brigham Young Univ.. 001 003 022 -  8 11  4
-------------------------------------------
E - LEE; CORONA; JACKSON; JENSEN; STUBBLEFIELD 2. DP - AZTEC 1; COUGARS 1. 
LOB - SDSU 8; COUGARS 5. 2B - LEE; CORONA 2; MCLINTOCK 2; MANFRED; EMBREY; 
JACKSON; ITRI. 3B - COUGHLAN. HR - CORONA(5). HBP - STEPHENS; WILKES. 
SH - GWYNN. SB - GWYNN. CS - GWYNN; WIENS.
SDSU                   IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
DUNWELL, Chris......  8.1 11  8  6  2  7 35 38
JENSON, Drew........  0.1  0  0  0  0  0  1  1
HARTSHORN, Chris....  0.1  0  0  0  0  0  1  1
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
MOUSSER, Jeff.......  3.2 10 13  2  3  4 22 27
GARCIA, Jason.......  3.1  7  3  3  0  2 16 16
WARD, Matt..........  2.0  2  1  1  1  1  8  9
Win - DUNWELL (4-2).  Loss - MOUSSER (3-2).  Save - None.
HBP - by MOUSSER (STEPHENS); by DUNWELL (WILKES). BK - DUNWELL; MOUSSER.
Umpires - HP: Joe Burleson  1B: Dan Perugini  3B: Jim Paronto
Start: 7:04   Time: 3:13   Attendance: 1176
Game notes:
Game one of three
Game time includes 20 min delay for power outage