5th inning rally lifts BYU baseball past Utah for series-opening win

For the first four innings Thursday night against Utah, BYU couldn’t muster any offensive momentum.

The Cougars weren’t without opportunities, having put seven men on base, but they only managed to get one run out of the early traffic, repeatedly fading with runners in scoring position. Anything that could have become a spark was quickly extinguished.

In the bottom of the fifth, BYU trailed by two runs and had runners at the corners. The Cougars had already stranded two men on three separate occasions, so when Bryker Hurdsman had two strikes against him in a two-out at bat, there was fair reason to believe a fourth such disappointment was imminent.

But Hurdsman wouldn’t be the one to make that third out — it took the Utes another five batters after him to finally escape the frame, at which point BYU had scored five runs to pull ahead with a comfortable cushion.

The Cougars never looked back following their fifth inning breakthrough, as they held on to capture a 6-4 victory in Provo to open the 3-game rivalry series.

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“I think we got unlucky early. We hit some balls hard and got caught, you know what I mean? I thought we had really good at-bats and got (Utah starting pitcher Colter McAnelly’s) pitch count up and maybe wore him down a little bit, so I liked our approach throughout, it was just a matter of time before we got a big hit,” BYU head coach Trent Pratt said postgame.


“We had guys on base every inning, and we just couldn’t come through the big hit, and then in that (fifth) inning, we were able to come through with a couple big hits and put a five on the board.”

Hurdsman kickstarted the two-out BYU rally with the first of three consecutive RBI singles, with Crew McChesney and Tualau Wolfgramm’s respective game-tying and go-ahead knocks each coming on the first pitch they saw.

Even after a Utah pitching change, Matt Hansen walked to load the bases, setting up a Ridge Erickson single to score two more runs and put BYU ahead by three.

The Cougars ended up batting around the order in the fifth — Luke Anderson led off the inning with a single, scored on Hurdsman’s hit and then made the third out.

BYU’s 5 through 9 hitters in the lineup, previously hitless on the night, were the ones to flip the ballgame, all doing so with two outs and exclusively through singles and walking.

“That’s where experience comes in. There’s really nothing they haven’t seen,” Pratt said of his lineup. “A lot of these kids have started for four years, so they don’t get rattled, they don’t get fazed.

“If we get down, they just keep playing, because they know we can strike fast. We have a chance to get back in any game.”

BYU starter Wayland Crane was less than electric on the mound — he allowed five hits, walked three Utah batters, plunked two others and only threw strikes on half of his pitches — but he battled through five innings to allow just one earned run, repeatedly playing Houdini to escape trouble and keep the cold Cougar bats in the ballgame.

With the bases loaded and one out in the third inning, Crane induced a badly-needed double play to keep the Utes off the scoreboard, which Pratt referred to as “the turning point of the game.”

“(Crane) was just gutsy,” Pratt said. “... He wasn’t sharp, but he found a way to just make pitches, and we played good defense behind him to get him out of some jams.”

Dan Brousseau relieved Crane for three innings of one-run ball with three punchouts, and Ashton Johnson tossed a perfect ninth for his fifth save of the season.

“Dan was awesome. He came in and just threw strikes,” Pratt said. “That’s the thing, when we got in trouble, it’s because we walk guys or hit guys. Then (Johnson) does what he always does, we know from the game, he’s gonna throw strikes.

“If someone’s gonna beat us, they have to get a bunch of hits.”

Utah’s seven hits — three for extra bases — proved insufficient, as the road team went 3 for 15 with runners on, including 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Daniel Arambula smacked a double, a solo home run and walked, Cal Miller got on base three times and Jet Gilliam logged two hits, but no other Utes reached safely more than once.

While six of his 14 recorded outs came via strikeout, McAnelly was charged for all six of BYU’s runs to take the loss, while Crane came away with his second career win.

BYU now moves to 23-21 on the year and 12-10 in Big 12 play, while the Utes fall to 21-19 and 9-13 against league foes.

The second game of the series will take place Friday at 6 p.m. in Provo.