BYU hits five home runs in 10-5 victory over UVU

OREM, Utah — Courtesy of five home runs, BYU softball defeated Utah Valley University 10-5 at Wolverine Softball Field on Wednesday evening, extending its winning streak to 10 for a 35-10 overall record.

The Cougars' five home runs in a single game are tied for the second-most in program history and most since hitting five long balls against Dixie State on May 10, 2021. 

Game Highlights

• BYU hit five home runs, with bombs by Violet Zavodnik (2), Huntyr Ava, Alyssa Podhurcak and Marissa Chavez, surpassing 50 home runs on the season.
• The Cougars hit back-to-back-back home runs in the top of the fifth inning.

With two outs in the top of the first inning, Violet Zavodnik stepped up to the plate and hit her first home run of the game with a solo shot down the right field line to give BYU a 1-0 lead. Back-to-back doubles from Huntyr Ava and Alyssa Podhurcak extended the lead before a Marissa Chavez single up the middle made it 3-0 after one complete in Orem. 

In the top of the third inning, BYU doubled its score with three more runs. Zavodnik led with a triple down the line of left field and later scored off of Ava’s RBI single up the middle. WCC Player of the Week Chavez then hit a two-run homer to left center, with Ava’s pinch runner Taryn Lennon also scoring on the play for a 6-0 lead.

UVU made it a close game by scoring four runs, all unearned, in the bottom of the third. After a single by Jaeden Barajas, Danye Albritton grounded a ball to BYU’s shortstop Podhurcak who experienced a fielding error. Laynee Betancur was walked by BYU’s starting pitcher Autumn Moffat-Korth, and with the bases-loaded, an RBI single to left field earned UVU its first run. After UVU tallied two more hits and three runs, with two walks by Moffat-Korth, Chloe Temples entered the circle for BYU. Temples struck out her first batter to close the inning at 6-4.

In the top of the fifth inning, BYU had three back-to-back-to-back solo homers. Zavodnik got her second of the day, with two more bombs by Ava and Podhurcak to extend the lead to 9-4. Podhurcak’s homer was BYU’s fifth of the day, taking its season total to 53.

The Wolverines went three up three down for the third time of the day in the bottom of the fifth, keeping the score at 9-4 for BYU.

Epenesa secured BYU’s 10th run of the day off an RBI single to center field by Ava.

UVU had one more run in the bottom of the seventh, with a solo shot by Rylee Thorpe, but no more of her teammates got on base and the game ended at 10-5.

With four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings pitched, Temples earned her 13th win of the season.

Up next, BYU will travel to California for its last conference road series of the season against Pacific University. Its first games will be on Friday with a doubleheader at 4 and 6 p.m. PDT. All games will be streaming on the WCC Network.