Coughlan's Homer Helps Beat SUU

Cedar City, Utah (April 3, 2001)--Cameron Coughlan's improbable ninth-inning home run Tuesday lifted BYU to a come-from-behind 11-10 victory over Southern Utah University.

The sophomore's three-run home into near-gale force winds cleared the left field fence with no outs to tie the score at 10-all for his second dinger of the season. Then Doug Jackson hit a triple and was singled in by Shane Belliston for the winning run.

"We had some clutch ninth-inning hits that propelled us, but the most surprising thing to me was the opposite field home run," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "I never expected it from anyone, let alone Cameron.

"It was nice to win ugly, but I was pleased we played nine innings and didn't fold our tent. Jake (Chrisman) pitched well in his three innings for not throwing in almost a year."

Chrisman came in during the fifth inning when BYU was down 7-2. The 6-foot-8 Cougar freshman who was playing basketball a month ago, threw 39 pitches, gave up two hits, and let his teammates get him out of jams each inning.

"I still got it," said Chrisman of his pitching. "My arm feels great and this is where I'm supposed to be right now."

Chrisman was relieved in the eighth inning by fellow freshman Justin Su'a who picked up his first victory of the season. Su'a was relieved by James Ray, who picked up his second save in the ninth inning.

The Thunderbirds also got a good pitching effort from freshman Shawn Lambert, a lefty from St. George. Lambert had the Cougars stymied until the fifth inning when Matt Carson's single was beyond the outstretched jump of second baseman Todd Mitchell. Carson's single was only the fourth hit given up to that point, but drove in Coughlan for the first run of the day.

The Cougars chased Lambert from the game in the sixth when they scored four runs off three hits and one T-Bird error. Carson's left-field single in the sixth scored two of those runs.

When SUU scored two runs in the eighth to extend its lead to 10-6, a Cougar victory looked dim.

But in the ninth, Seth King watched reliever Bryan Ball deliver four straight balls and advanced to third on Jeff Hiestand's pinch-hit single. Pinch-hitter Tim Law battled at the plate and delivered a double past the third base bag to score King.

Law's double resulted in a controversial call at third when Hiestand was ruled safe and T-Bird Coach Kurt Palmer was ejected. An SUU assistant coach and two T-Bird players were later ejected after Coughlan's homer.

The victory improved BYU's record to 18-14, while SUU dropped to 5-23. The Cougars next play at the University of Utah in a three-game series beginning Thursday evening at Franklin Covey Field.

Southern Utah Baseball
                    Brigham Young at Southern Utah
          Apr 03, 2001 at Cedar City, Utah (Thunderbird Park)
Brigham Young 11 (18-14)
Name (Pos)                 AB  R  H RBI  BB SO PO  A LOB   Avg
JACKSON, Doug lf..........  5  3  3  1    1  0  1  0   0      
BELLISTON, Shane cf.......  6  0  1  2    0  3  1  0   0      
CARSON, Matt rf...........  6  0  3  3    0  1  3  0   0      
OBREY, Kainoa 3b..........  5  0  0  0    0  2  0  4   2      
KING, Seth ss.............  4  1  1  0    1  1  2  2   4      
WIRRICK, Michael dh.......  1  0  0  0    3  1  0  0   0      
 HIESTAND, Jeff ph/dh...... 1  1  1  0    0  0  0  0   0      
HAGUEWOOD, Ty 1b..........  4  1  2  0    0  1 12  0   1      
 LAW, Tim ph/1b............ 1  1  1  1    0  0  2  0   0      
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b......  4  3  3  3    1  0  2  2   0      
BIRKELAND, Lars c.........  5  1  1  0    0  1  4  2   3      
KOFFMAN, Scott p..........  0  0  0  0    0  0  0  2   0      
 CHRISMAN, Jake p.......... 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1   0      
 SU'A, Justin p............ 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1   0      
 RAY, James p.............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  1   0      
Totals.................... 42 11 16 10    6 10 27 15  10 
Southern Utah 10 (5-22)
Name (Pos)                 AB  R  H RBI  BB SO PO  A LOB   Avg
Nelson, Chris c...........  2  0  1  0    2  0 11  1   0      
Anderson, James ss........  5  0  1  0    0  0  1  4   5      
Jacobsen, Curtis 3b.......  6  2  3  0    0  2  2  2   0      
Mitchell, Todd 2b.........  6  1  1  0    0  1  4  2   2      
Wright, Dan 1b............  4  4  2  1    0  1  6  0   0      
Grundy, Chad lf...........  5  2  2  2    0  0  2  0   1      
Dickinson, Keith dh.......  4  1  2  3    0  0  0  0   0      
Yocum, Kurtis rf..........  5  0  1  1    0  2  0  0   0      
Hatch, Travis cf..........  4  0  1  2    0  0  1  1   4      
Lambert, Shawn p..........  0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0   0      
 Stoker, Steven p.......... 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0   0      
 Ball, Bryan p............. 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0   0      
 Matthews, Wes p........... 0  0  0  0    0  0  0  0   0      
Totals.................... 41 10 14  9    2  6 27 10  12 
Score by innings:                      R  H  E
----------------------------------------------
Brigham Young         000 024 005   - 11 16  4
Southern Utah         022 040 020   - 10 14  3
----------------------------------------------
E - CARSON; KING; COUGHLAN; BIRKELAND; Anderson 2; Jacobsen. 
DP - BYU 1; So. Utah 1. LOB - BYU 10; So. Utah 12. 
2B - HAGUEWOOD; LAW; Anderson; Jacobsen; Mitchell; Grundy; Dickinson. 3B - JACKSON. 
HR - COUGHLAN(2). 
SB - KING; COUGHLAN. CS - BELLISTON. 
SH - Anderson. SF - Hatch. 
Brigham Young          IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  AB BF   ERA  NP
KOFFMAN, Scott......  4.0   9   8   6   1   3  22 25        81
CHRISMAN, Jake......  3.0   2   0   0   1   2  10 13        39
SU'A, Justin........  1.1   3   2   0   0   1   7  9        21
RAY, James..........  0.2   0   0   0   0   0   2  2         4
Southern Utah          IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  AB BF   ERA  NP
Lambert, Shawn......  5.1   7   4   2   4   6  22 26       105
Stoker, Steven......  2.2   4   2   0   1   3  13 14        50
Ball, Bryan.........  0.0   3   4   4   1   0   3  4        20
Matthews, Wes.......  1.0   2   1   1   0   1   4  4        24
Win - SU'A 1-0.  Loss - Matthews 0-3.  Save - RAY (2).
WP - KOFFMAN. BK - KOFFMAN. 
HBP - by KOFFMAN (Nelson); by KOFFMAN (Wright); by CHRISMAN (Dickinson); by SU'A (Nelson). 
Umpires - Home:Blyden Loutensock  1st:Jim Paronto  
Start: 1:00 pm   Time: 2:57   Attendance: 142
KOFFMAN faced 4 batters in the 5th.
Ball faced 4 batters in the 9th.