Washington Starts Northwest Series

Artificial turf for the third straight week is the forage for BYU’s baseball team as it starts a three-game series at Washington on Thursday.

The Cougars, above .500 for the first time this year at 4-3, play Thursday and Friday nights at Washington, 1-5, concluding the series on Saturday afternoon.

Washington native Stephen Wells leads BYU’s team with a current four-game hitting streak and has one of the hottest bats, raising his average from .214 to .364. Wells, a centerfielder, was one of five teammates named to the all-tournament team last week in Texas. The other Cougars named to that honor were infielders Andrew Law and Ryan Bernal, and pitchers Matthew Neil and Taylor Cole.

Cole is scheduled to start Friday’s game and has a perfect 2-0 record with a 0.00 earned run average in 12 innings. Thursday’s starter is Chris Capper (0-1, 8.00) and southpaw Mark Anderson (1-0, 2.25) gets the nod for Saturday afternoon.

“We have had solid pitching, our hitters are going to continue to come around and I’m pleased we are playing hard,” said BYU coach Vance Law. “We had limited practices this week because we are trying to get ahead in school with the long road trip.”

The Cougars remain in the Northwest following the Washington series for games at Portland and the University of Oregon next week.