Brigham Young's offense, held in check by Ohio State on Thursday, erupted for five first inning runs en route to an 8-6 second round win over Central Michigan Friday.
The Cougars advance to round three of the Atlantic II Regional today in Tallahassee.After Central Michigan opened the game with a run in the top of the first, BYU designated hitter Ryan Hall sparked the Cougar outburst with a three run homer off Chippewa starter Scott Cook. Cook, 8-4, failed to get out of the first inning. Mike Espiritu walked and center fielder Jared Bills singled and both came around to score to finish off the scoring in the inning.
Brigham Young second baseman D.G. Nelson, who was 2 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored, led off the second inning with a home run of his own and the Cougars were up 6-1.
"Game Four (an elimination game) is not fun to play in," Brigham Young coach Gary Pullins said after the game. "Central Michigan and BYU both showed great character. I'm proud of our guys and the way they bounced back today. Ryan, Jorge (Jaime) and Espiritu have carried us through the last half of the season," he added.
The Chippewas made a bid to come back with three runs in the fourth to pull to within 6-4, but Carter Hagerman reached on a walk in the fifth and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-4 BYU.
CMU scored two more runs in the top of the sixth but that would be as close as they would come. The Cougars added an insurance run in the eighth when Troy Phillips, pinch running for Hall, came around to score on a ground out.
"It's not pretty," stated Pullins. "Everyone who knows baseball can see we're not playing good baseball now, but if you can win ugly sometimes it can go a long way."
"BYU is always well prepared and they come right at you," CMU coach Dean Kreiner said. "The big blow was Hall's home run. That really hurt us."
In a game that included three rain delays, Cougar starter Brian Knoll, (6-3), was able to work five innings before giving way to workhorse lefthander Jorge Jaime. Jaime started the sixth and pitched four scoreless innings in relief for his second save of the season. He struck out six, including the side in the ninth.
"I saw that their bats were a little slow," Jaime said, "so we started throwing mainly fastballs low to take advantage of that."
"In Game Four of this tournament, the first inning was a large lift," Pullins said, "especially after Central Michigan got one run in their half of the first. In no way did our five runs give us the win, but it was a huge lift for us."
Hall said he is looking forward to today's game. "Everyone's confidence level has to fo up after today. We get to go on," he said after the win on Friday.
Because Kansas later defeated Ohio State, 20-6, the Cougars will now play Kansas at 1 p.m. MDT today, assuming the previous game between Ohio State and the loser of Florida State-Jacksonville University ends on time and there are no rain delays. The game will be broadcast live over KSRR (AM-1400).
Pullins said he is undecided who will start for the Cougars. He said he might come back with Jaime again, but would wait to see who the next opponent would be.