After winning five straight Western Athletic Conference division championships, including eight in the last 10 years, the BYU baseball team wasn't about to relinquish their title to Utah, which was looking for its first WAC division title in 32 years.
All the Utes needed to claim the crown was a victory Friday afternoon at Cougar Field - and for most of the three-and-a half-hour marathon slugfest, it appeared they'd get it. That is, until BYU's D.G. Nelson stepped to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning.Nelson greeted Brandon Page's second pitch and sent it over the center field fence for a grand slam to give the Cougars a stunning 19-18 victory.
The win keeps BYU's division title hopes alive going into today's doubleheader at Cougar Field at noon. The Cougars (20-8 in the WAC), need to sweep the two games, while Utah (21-7) still just needs a single victory to claim first place.
"These kids battled and never gave up," said BYU coach Gary Pullins. "D.G. has done that for us time and time again. It couldn't happen to a greater kid."
The Utes, who led right from the start when Scott Pratt and Casey Child opened the game with back-to-back home runs off Shane Bloomfield, thought they were in great shape going into the bottom of the ninth. They had their fine freshman closer Brandon Page, who already had eight saves and a perfect 2-0 record on the year, fresh on the mound.
However, he never even got an out against the meat of the Cougar order.
First Troy Farnsworth hit a single to center followed by Tyson DowDell's single to right. David Decker loaded the bases with another single, setting the table for Nelson, who came into the game with a team-leading 16 home runs.
After taking a high inside pitch, Nelson smacked an "up and out" pitch for the game-winner. BYU players flooded out of the dugout, while Ute players, who had been standing anticipating celebrating a championship, glumly headed for the bus.
"I love pressure situations, I really enjoy it," said Nelson. "I either want to be the goat or the guy who wins it. I figure the pressure is on the other guy."
The Utes blasted six home runs of their own on the day but just didn't have the pitching to stop the leading hitting team in the nation.
"That's baseball," said Utah coach Tim Esmay with a shrug afterwards. "We've been doing that to people all year long. Now we'll see what we're made of. We've still got two games to play."
The Utes held leads of 8-2, 12-5 and 18-12, but couldn't hold on.
In the third inning, the Utes scored five runs, four with two out, capped by Travis Hall's three-run homer. BYU came back with three in the bottom of the inning thanks to four singles, but Utah answered with four more in the fourth as Nate Forbush, Mike Heidemann and Matt Eeles had three straight doubles, again after two were out.
BYU chased Ute ace Rick Clagett in the bottom of the fourth as Jason Woolley. Glen Spencer, Troy Farnsworth, Nelson and Matt Strigham all knocked in runs to make it 12-10. Clagett could have been affected by a hit hard by a line drive to his shin the previous inning.
Travis Flint led off the fifth and 7th innings with homers for Utah, which came up with five runs in the 7th to go up 18-12. While that may seem like a comfortable lead, it is nothing of the sort in a WAC baseball game at Cougar Field.
Jared Jensen, who had shut down the Utes a couple of weeks ago in another come-from- behind win by BYU, did it again Friday as he held Utah scoreless in the last two innings.
Meanwhile, the Cougs stayed in it with a solo homer by Farnworth in the 7th and a pair of runs in the 8th on singles by Brad Winget and Woolley off Ray Clinton, who had six strikeouts in four-plus innings.
Next week both BYU and Utah head to San Diego for the six-team WAC playoffs. Today's games could determine which team gets the higher seed.