SAN DIEGO — Nine lead changes, nine home runs and 10 innings later, Utah edged BYU 15-14 to stay alive in the second round of the double-elimination Mountain West Conference baseball tournament.
Utah, now 27-27, got a 10th-inning single from Britt Pannier to drive in Sam Swenson for the game-winning run in the upset over top-seeded BYU at Tony Gwynn Stadium. Swenson's single helped score pinch-runner Donald Hawes to tie the game at 14-all.
"That was by far one of the greatest college baseball games I've ever been around," said Ute head coach Tim Esmay. "Our backs were against the wall, and we responded, and BYU was not going to give in. Whomever was the visitor was destined to lose that game. The team with the last at bat was going to win."
The Cougars, now 35-20, met UNLV this morning. If the Cougars won, they were to play New Mexico at 7 p.m.
Utah, meanwhile, played San Diego State Friday afternoon.
"This was one of the hardest-fought games I've seen in a long time," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "This is why I don't like a conference tournament. We all played well and I thought Seth King's home run was going to be the clincher, but Utah always had an answer all afternoon."
King's eighth-inning solo gave BYU a 13-9 lead that seemed insurmountable on the heels of reliever Justin Su'a striking out the side in the seventh. But a pair of two-run homers by Chris Shelton and Mike Westfall in the eighth tied the game.
It was Shelton's second dinger of the game and his 18th of the season, passing BYU's Matt Carson for the league homer lead. Carson didn't suit up for the game as he was prone with a back injury on a gurney in the crowd behind BYU's first base dugout.