First Place Slips Away

OREM -- First place slipped away from BYU's baseball team as the Air Force Academy rallied Friday for a 15-11 victory.

The Cougars, now 14-12 overall and 5-3 in the Mountain West Conference, let leads of 1-0, 6-2, and 10-8 vanish. Critical in the blow were five unearned runs as AFA batted around in the sixth and seventh innings when BYU committed three of its five errors.

BYU got off to a good start when Seth King hit a solo homer to left field off a 2-2 pitch in the second inning. It looked well for the Cougars as back-to-back high choppers to third base were contained by Kainoa Obrey and lefty Jeff Stone picked off Bowie Frost on first in the third.

Then two singles followed by Frost's sac bunt in the fifth led to Brett Ellis' two-run single in the fifth. Tyler Perry's two-run single in the bottom of that inning started BYU's five-run rally.

In the sixth inning Gerremy Goldsberry's hit was mishandled at first base. Then Brad Bashore's two-run double and Tony Shockley's pinch-hit two-run single chased Stone off the mound. The Cougars rebounded in the sixth with pinch hitter Jeff Hiestand swatting the first pitch over the right field wall and Doug Jackson hitting a two-run, two-out triple to right field. Jackson was singled in by Shane Belliston to give BYU its last lead, 10-8.

Another error at first base and shortstop opened the floodgate in the seventh inning aided by Daniel Petro's one-out two-run single, another high chopper over third base.

The Falcons improved to 15-15 and 2-6 going into Saturday's noon finale at the UVSC field.

The Automated ScoreBook
                    Air Force Academy at Brigham Young Univ.
                    Mar 23, 2001 at Orem, Utah (UVSC Field)
Air Force Academy 15 (15-15,2-6 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
LaBASCO, Brian 2b........  5  1  3  0   1  0  3  7   0
PROUTY, Nelson ss........  4  1  0  1   0  1  5  5   2
THIESSEN, Mike cf........  6  2  3  1   0  1  2  0   2
 LIEGL, Nick cf..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
GOLDSBERRY, Gerremy rf...  4  1  0  0   1  0  2  0   2
 HOWES, Adam ph..........  1  0  1  1   0  0  0  0   0
 ROLLEG, Don lf..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
PARAMORE, Price dh.......  6  2  1  1   0  1  0  0   1
PHIFER, Josh lf/rf.......  3  3  2  1   1  0  0  0   0
BASHORE, Brad 3b.........  5  3  2  1   0  0  0  3   0
FROST, Bowie 1b..........  4  1  2  0   0  2 10  0   1
ELLIS, Brett c...........  2  0  1  2   0  0  3  0   0
 SHOCKLEY, Tony ph.......  1  0  1  2   0  0  0  0   0
 PETRO, Daniel c.........  2  1  1  2   0  0  1  0   0
KOEGEL, Johnny p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 KAERCHER, Matt p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 43 15 17 12   3  5 27 16   8
Brigham Young Univ. 11 (14-12,5-3 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug lf.........  5  3  5  3   0  0  1  0   0
BELLISTON, Shane cf......  4  0  1  2   0  0  0  0   0
CARSON, Matt rf..........  5  0  0  2   0  2  0  0   1
KING, Seth ss............  5  1  3  1   0  1  3  4   0
WIRRICK, Michael dh......  2  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
 HIESTAND, Jeff ph.......  3  1  1  1   0  0  0  0   1
OBREY, Kainoa 3b.........  4  1  3  0   0  0  0  3   0
HAGUEWOOD, Ty 1b.........  1  1  0  0   1  0 11  1   0
 LAW, Tim 1b.............  1  0  0  0   0  0  2  0   0
DAVIES, Michael c........  3  1  1  0   0  0  3  0   1
 COUGHLAN, Cameron pr....  0  1  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 BIRKELAND, Lars c.......  1  0  0  0   0  0  3  0   0
PERRY, Tyler 2b..........  4  2  2  2   0  0  4  6   0
STONE, Jeff p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  4   0
 STEARMAN, Jeff p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 KOFFMAN, Scott p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 RAY, James p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 38 11 16 11   1  4 27 18   3
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Air Force Academy... 000 026 502 - 15 17  3
Brigham Young Univ.. 010 054 001 - 11 16  5
-------------------------------------------
E - PROUTY; THIESSEN; ELLIS; KING 2; OBREY; HAGUEWOOD; LAW. DP - Falcons 4;
Cougars 2. LOB - Falcons 8; Cougars 3. 2B - THIESSEN; PHIFER; BASHORE; KING.
3B - JACKSON. HR - KING(4); HIESTAND(3). HBP - PROUTY; PHIFER; HAGUEWOOD. SH
- PROUTY; FROST. SF - BELLISTON. SB - BASHORE 2; FROST; SHOCKLEY; JACKSON.
CS - LaBASCO.
Air Force Academy      IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
KOEGEL, Johnny......  5.2 12 10  9  1  3 25 28
KAERCHER, Matt......  3.1  4  1  1  0  1 13 13
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
STONE, Jeff.........  5.1  9  8  7  2  2 23 27
STEARMAN, Jeff......  1.0  4  5  0  1  1  9 10
KOFFMAN, Scott......  2.1  3  2  2  0  1  9 11
RAY, James..........  0.1  1  0  0  0  1  2  2
Win - KAERCHER (3-4).  Loss - STEARMAN (1-3).  Save - None.
WP - KAERCHER; STONE 3. HB - KOEGEL; STONE; KOFFMAN. BK - STONE. PB - BIRKELAND.
Umpires - Home:Bill Boyd  1st:Jim Paronto  3rd:Kelly Gonzales
Start: 2:01   Time: 2:53   Attendance: 284
Game notes:
Game Two of Three