Pair of Matts Lead to Victory

STOCKTON -- A pair of baseball players named Matt led BYU to a 5-2 victory Saturday over the University of Pacific.

Matt Carson hit a pair of home runs in the eighth and ninth inning and pitcher Matt Ward threw three-plus innings of one-hit relief pitching to combine in the defeat of the Tigers.

"This was one victory we badly needed," said BYU Coach Vance Law, whose team lost the first two games against Pacific. "We were hitting the ball well all afternoon, but only had three hits to show for it until Carson's homer in the eighth.

"When Matt (Carson) is hitting, its contagious and fun to see the rest of the team catch fire. Koffman (Scott) and Ward (Matt) pitched extremely well. Ward was outstanding."

Ward relieved Koffman in the seventh and only gave up an eighth-inning double, but handcuffed the Tigers with his slider and three strikeouts.

Behind 2-0, Carson lifted the Cougar spirits with a lead-off homer in the eighth inning to left center. Two outs and two batters later, Kevin Bills tied the score with his homer to left field. Lars Birkeland was the next batter in the eighth and also homered to left.

Carson hit a two-run homer in the ninth to score Cameron Coughlan. The homers were the first of the season for Carson, who led BYU with 18 dingers last season.

Carson, a rightfielder, was also responsible for helping throw out a runner at second in the second inning to save a run. Coughlan, a leftfielder, threw out a runner in the fifth at home plate to end the inning.

The victory was the third of the season against 10 losses for BYU, while Pacific evened its record to 3-3. The Cougars are in action this coming Thursday to start a three-game series at the University of Hawaii, followed by three games at Hawaii-Hilo.

Brigham Young Univ. at Pacific
           Feb 16, 2002 at Stockton, California (Billy Hebert Field)
Brigham Young Univ. 5 (3-10)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug cf.........  4  0  1  0   1  1  0  0   0
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  3  0  1  0   1  0  1  3   2
COUGHLAN, Cameron lf.....  5  1  1  0   0  1  2  1   3
CARSON, Matt rf..........  4  2  3  3   1  0  1  1   1
ITRI, Rob 3b.............  5  0  1  0   0  0  1  7   0
JENSEN, Dave 1b..........  5  0  1  0   0  1 11  0   4
BILLS, Kevin dh..........  4  1  1  1   0  0  0  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  4  1  1  1   0  0  7  1   0
YI, Han 2b...............  4  0  0  0   0  0  3  1   0
KOFFMAN, Scott p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  2   0
 WARD, Matt p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  1   0
Totals................... 38  5 10  5   3  3 27 17  10
Pacific 2 (3-3)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Jodlowski ss.............  5  0  0  0   0  3  1  3   1
Snook rf.................  2  0  1  0   1  0  0  0   0
 Kinder lf...............  2  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   2
Harper 3b................  5  0  2  0   0  1  0  2   0
Stanford dh..............  3  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   2
Gilhooly lf/rf...........  4  1  1  0   0  1  5  0   0
Alverson 1b..............  3  0  1  0   0  1  9  1   1
Fitzgerald 2b............  4  1  2  0   0  0  5  4   0
Summers cf...............  4  0  2  1   0  0  2  0   0
Amezquita c..............  4  0  2  1   0  0  2  2   3
Bergthold p..............  0  0  0  0   0  0  2  0   0
 Pena p..................  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 36  2 11  2   1  6 27 12  11
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Brigham Young Univ.. 000 000 032 -  5 10  1
Pacific............. 010 001 000 -  2 11  2
-------------------------------------------
E - YI; Jodlowski 2. LOB - BYU Cougars 10; Pacific 11. 2B - WIENS; ITRI;
Amezquita 2. HR - CARSON M. 2(2); BILLS(1); BIRKELAND(1). HBP - WIENS;
Stanford 2; Alverson. SB - Gilhooly. CS - JENSEN; Snook.
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
KOFFMAN, Scott......  5.1 10  2  1  1  3 24 27
WARD, Matt..........  3.2  1  0  0  0  3 12 13
Pacific                IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
Bergthold...........  6.2  3  0  0  3  1 25 29
Pena................  2.1  7  5  5  0  2 13 13
Win - WARD (1-1).  Loss - Pena (1-1).  Save - None.
HBP - by KOFFMAN (Alverson); by KOFFMAN (Stanford); by Bergthold (WIENS); by
WARD (Stanford).
Umpires -
Start: 1:00 pm   Time: 2:30   Attendance: 156