STANFORD, California (June 3, 2017)— No. 8 Stanford belted three home runs to knock No. 26 BYU baseball from the NCAA region tournament on Saturday, 9-1 at Sunken Diamond.

The Cougars ended their season with a 38-21 record, tying for the ninth-most wins in school history. Stanford improved to 42-15, giving its retiring coach Mark Marquess at least one more game in his stellar 41-year career at Stanford, his alma mater where he roomed with future BYU graduate Mitt Romney as collegians.

BYU gave Marquess and the Cardinal a better game, at least for six innings, than the spread of a 9-1 score.

“I don't feel like the score was indicative of how good that game was,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “Maverik (Buffo) gave us a chance to win, but we couldn’t solve (Chris) Castellanos. He didn't give us anything to hit. His changeup is a game-changer and he was a bulldog out there."

One of the few mistakes Castellanos made was to designated hitter Colton Shaver in the fifth inning.

“He missed one pitch on me the entire day and I got a barrel on it,” Shaver said.

Shaver worked the full count of curves to his advantage, knocking his 13th homer (second of the tourney) over the left center fence in the fifth for a 1-0 Cougar lead. He gave Maverik Buffo a short cushion from which to work.

Earlier, Buffo avoided being tarnished in the second inning after hitting a batter and giving up a full count walk with two out. He had recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the first and start the second frame.

BYU got its first baserunner of the afternoon when Brock Hale got aboard on a throw from third base, which pulled the first baseman off the bag.  Hale made a successful delayed steal to second before Stanford recorded a pair of strikeouts to end the second.

A superb timed leap by second baseman Brian Hsu prevented the Cardinal from scoring after leadoff triple in the fourth. The Cardinal advanced another runner to third in the next frame, prompting a mound visit from Littlewood in the fifth after five straight balls, but Buffo escaped that jam too, getting the third out of both innings on fly balls to Hale.

Stanford tied the score in the sixth, then took a 3-1 lead on a two-out home run to left field by Jack Klein, grandson of the late Cardinal player/philanthropist for whom the field and press box are named.

After 121 pitches, Buffo was relieved by Riley Gates to finish the seventh with a runner aboard and two out. Gates was quickly replaced by Keaton Cenatiempo after he surrendered back-to-back homers, expanding the Cardinal lead to 6-1.

Bo Burrup replaced Cenatiempo with another short stint before Jordan Wood stopped the three-run eighth.

“This is a special group of guys,” Littlewood said. “To break through like this team did is rewarding. I’d take their will and determination over any team I’ve ever had.”

See this link for NCAA regional photos from Saturday's BYU action: and this BYU photo essay:

PROVO, Utah—Stanford, California, is the route chosen for No. 26 BYU baseball as it starts on the Road to Omaha at the NCAA Regional hosted by Stanford University on Thursday.

The Cougars, 37-19, will open the tournament at 1 p.m. PDT as the No. 3 seed facing No. 2-seed Cal State Fullerton (34-21) out of the Big West Conference.  The other team facing the top-seeded Cardinal (40-14) in the Stanford Regional is Western Athletic Conference Champion Sacramento State (32-27). Stanford hosts the regional as the tournament's No. 8 overall seed and plays the Hornets at 6 p.m. PDT.  All games can be seen worldwide on ESPN3.com.

BYU's opening game opponent enters the matchup ranked No. 17 in the latest national rankings, while the Cardinal is ranked No. 8 in the nation. The games at the Stanford Regional will be played at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.

The winner of the BYU-Cal-State Fullerton game advances to play the winner of Stanford-Sacramento State on Friday, while the other two teams play later on Friday in the double-elimination tournament. All games in the Stanford Regional will be played at either 1 or 6 p.m. PDT and can be seen worldwide on ESPN3.com.

The Cougars, regular-season tri-champions in the West Coast Conference, won the WCC Tournament last weekend in Stockton, California, on their way to equaling the program's 10th-best season in school history with 37 victories. Riding a four-game winning streak coming off the WCC Tournament, BYU earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Road to Omaha with dominating back-to-back 10-3, 16-3 wins on Saturday in Stockton over fellow tri-champion Gonzaga.

“It's really gratifying for me to see the fruits of our players' labors come to fruition," BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. "We've hit good pitching all year long, and I feel like our mentality is really good right now. Cal-State Fullerton is a very well coached, talented and confident team. It's going to be a battle."

This is BYU’s 12th selection to an NCAA Regional since 1979, the first year that format was adopted. BYU has made two appearances in the College World Series in 1968 and 1971. In 1958 and 1961 the Cougars declined going to the CWS because of issues with Sunday play. If BYU is playing in Game 7 at the Stanford Regional,  that contest will be played on Monday, June 5 at 1 p.m. PDT

The Cougars are scheduled to leave Tuesday.

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