Utes win rain-shortened series opener, 9-3

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah won a rain-shortened six-inning game 9-3 Tuesday night at Smith’s Ballpark in the first of three contests this season against BYU baseball.

Utah (8-15) won the game which was called over the Cougars (11-13) after coming from behind. The Utes took a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning, before a five-run sixth frame sealed the win after umpires walked off the field in what initially was to be a 30-minute rain delay.

“It was ugly,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We got a couple of runs and then somehow shutdown. We worked hard on offense to score runs and then continually gave them free bases. It is an issue time and time again.”

The Cougars generated a run in the first when Hayden Nielsen extended his hitting streak to 11 games and scored on Tanner Chauncey’s two-out double over the rightfielder.

After Utah tied the game in the bottom of that frame, Colton Shaver sat on an early fastball and knocked the 1-0 pitch over the leftfield fence for his fourth homer of the season, giving BYU a 2-1 lead in the second.

Shaver hoisted a 2-1 pitch with one out in the fourth for another solo homer, his second of the night, to give BYU a 3-1 lead.

Utah tripled twice in the bottom of the fourth. Brady Corless took a bullet off his left ankle and recovered in time to throw out the lead Ute at home. The next batter tripled to close the gap to 3-2.

Utah took a 4-3 advantage for the first time in the game with a two-out triple in the fifth off Corless. Attendance was 1,367, not counting the live Pac-12 TV audience.

The Utes play at BYU in game two of the series on April 24, then close the three-game series on May 12 in Salt Lake City.

The Cougars resume league play on Thursday night to start a three-game series at the University of San Diego which will be broadcast live on BYU Radio 960 AM and live audio stream.