Sweep Over San Diego State

PROVO -- A two-game, first-place lead belongs to BYU's baseball team after it got a 13-12 victory Saturday afternoon over San Diego State.

The Cougars, now 29-17 overall and 17-7 in the Mountain West Conference, scored four runs in the eighth inning to take their only lead before a live TV audience and 1,014 fans at Larry H. Miller Field.

"Our execution in the last inning was the best I've seen since I left the major league," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "(Cameron) Coughlan's at bat was critical in moving the runner from second to third."

Coughlan belted a sacrifice fly to right-centerfield to score pinch-runner Aaron Whitley and advance catcher Lars Birkeland. Birkeland then scored off Doug Jackson's sac-fly to score the winning run with two outs.

That eighth-inning rally started when Michael Wirrick led off getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game to break a school record. Wirrick has been hit by 15 pitches this season. Then Seth King lined a single to left field.

SDSU changed pitchers to Royce Ring when Law replaced Ty Haguewood at bat with Jeff Hiestand. So Law replaced Hiestand after the pitching change with Michael Davies. Davies then belted a single to right field to score Wirrick.

Birkeland hit a sacrifice bunt to the right side and Aztec first baseman Cody Haven elected to throw to third, trying to put out King. Birkeland and King both ended up being safe.

"I couldn't believe it when they threw to third to try and get King," said Law, a former major league third baseman. "Seth runs the bases very well."

King did damage earlier in the game by leading off with a fifth-inning homer to centerfield to pull BYU close with an 8-7 Aztec lead. King scored BYU's initial run in the second after hitting a double.

The Aztecs jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first inning as Jeff Stone and his sixth-inning replacement struggled.

When freshman Justin Su'a entered the game in the seventh, he closed the door, allowing one hit and recording three strikeouts in two-plus innings to improve his record to 3-0.

Kainoa Obrey helped close the gap to 5-3 in the third inning when he knocked in two runs with his single to left field, including a sliding Jackson. The Cougars scored two their three runs in the fourth from a pair of sacrifice flies with streaks on the line by Jackson and Shane Belliston.

Jackson's streak ended at nine games, but Belliston's streak improved to 19 games with his eighth-inning single. On at least two occasions, the fourth and fifth, BYU had the bases loaded with SDSU escaping on minimal damage.

The Cougars swept SDSU in three games at Provo to give the Aztecs a 27 20 overall mark and a second-place 15-9 record.

"This game was huge," said Law. "It was a two-game swing. We have had some nice comebacks in the last four weeks."

BYU next plays two non-conference games on Tuesday at Oklahoma State and on Wednesday at Oral Roberts. Nate Fernley, 12-2, is scheduled to pitch the game at OSU.

The Automated ScoreBook
                     San Diego State at Brigham Young Univ.
               Apr 28, 2001 at Provo, Utah (Larry H.Miller Field)
San Diego State 12 (27-20,15-9 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
LEE, Taber ss............  5  1  2  0   0  0  1  3   0
LEUTHARD, Ben lf.........  5  3  3  3   0  0  0  0   0
PIERCE, Sean rf..........  4  3  2  2   1  0  2  0   0
MINTER, Jake dh..........  4  1  1  0   0  0  0  0   1
 BOWLES, Darrell ph......  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   1
AMAYA, Pilar 3b..........  4  1  2  3   1  0  0  2   0
COTA, Carlo 2b...........  5  0  2  1   0  1  6  2   2
HAVEN, Cody 1b...........  4  0  1  1   0  0  6  0   2
 EMBREY, Rielly 1b.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
MANFRED, Brian c.........  5  2  2  1   0  2  4  2   0
MITCHELL, Rah-Miel cf....  4  1  1  0   0  0  5  0   1
 HILL, Josh ph/cf........  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
JULIANEL, Ben p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 MOAT, Mike p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 RING, Royce p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 42 12 16 11   2  4 24 11   7
Brigham Young Univ. 13 (29-17,17-7 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug lf.........  2  2  0  2   1  1  0  0   0
BELLISTON, Shane cf......  4  0  1  1   0  2  3  0   0
CARSON, Matt rf..........  4  0  2  2   1  1  3  0   3
OBREY, Kainoa 3b.........  4  0  1  2   1  0  0  3   2
WIRRICK, Michael dh......  3  1  1  0   0  0  0  0   2
KING, Seth ss............  5  3  3  1   0  0  1  5   2
HAGUEWOOD, Ty 1b.........  4  1  1  1   0  0 11  0   1
 HIESTAND, Jeff ph.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 DAVIES, Michael ph......  1  0  1  1   0  0  0  0   0
 WHITLEY, Aaron pr.......  0  1  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 LAW, Tim 1b.............  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  3  3  1  0   1  0  4  2   0
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b.....  3  2  2  1   1  0  4  5   0
STONE, Jeff p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 ADAMS, Ryan p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 SU'A, Justin p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 33 13 13 11   5  4 27 15  10
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
San Diego State..... 500 302 200 - 12 16  4
Brigham Young Univ.. 012 310 240 - 13 13  3
-------------------------------------------
E - AMAYA; COTA; EMBREY; MOAT; KING; COUGHLAN; STONE. DP - SDSU 2. LOB -
SDSU 7; Cougars 10. 2B - LEUTHARD; KING; BIRKELAND. 3B - COUGHLAN. HR -
KING(6). HBP - JACKSON; BELLISTON; WIRRICK 2. SH - LEE; BIRKELAND. SF -
HAVEN; JACKSON 2; BELLISTON; COUGHLAN. SB - PIERCE; JACKSON; COUGHLAN. CS -
HAVEN; BELLISTON.
San Diego State        IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
JULIANEL, Ben.......  4.0  7  7  4  4  1 17 24
MOAT, Mike..........  3.0  4  4  4  1  3 14 18
RING, Royce.........  1.0  2  2  1  0  0  2  5
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
STONE, Jeff.........  5.1 11 10  6  1  1 28 30
ADAMS, Ryan.........  1.0  4  2  2  1  0  6  8
SU'A, Justin........  2.2  1  0  0  0  3  8  8
Win - SU'A (3-0).  Loss - RING (5-2).  Save - None.
WP - MOAT 2. HB - JULIANEL; MOAT 3.
Umpires - Home:Mik Hendrickson  1st:Joe Burleson  3rd:Dan Perugini
Start: 1:08   Time: 2:59   Attendance: 1014
Game notes:
Game three of three in Provo
JULIANEL faced 1 batter in the 5th.
MOAT faced 2 batters in the 8th.