PROVO, Utah — After trailing 5-0 in the second inning, BYU baseball sealed an 8-7 comeback win over San Francisco Thursday evening at Miller Park with a walk-off RBI double from Cole Gambill in the bottom of the tenth.

“That was a hard fought win by our guys,” said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. “They battled their tails off for ten innings and I’m really proud of them. I loved Cole Gambill's at-bat in the bottom of the 10th. He didn’t try to pull the pitch, he just hit the ball hard to left-center. He took what they gave him and got us a win.”

The Cougars (8-11, 4-0) found themselves in a hole early, as San Francisco (5-15, 1-3) jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the second inning fueled by a two-out, three-run homer over the centerfield wall.

Andrew Pintar got the Cougars on the board in the bottom of the third, scoring all the way from first on a pair of San Francisco errors. After leading off the inning with a walk, Pintar advanced to third on a wild pick-off attempt then immediately ran home after the throw from the outfield also went awry.

BYU tacked on another two runs in the third to come within two, 5-3. Following a Mitch McIntyre single, Josh Cowden reached first on a fielder’s choice and Gambill reached second on an error, sending Cowden to third. Jacob Wilk then reached first on another error, driving in Cowden and Gambill.

A two-run homer in the top of the fourth extended the Dons’ lead, 7-3. Peyton Cole answered with a homerun of his own to right-center in the bottom of the inning, bringing BYU within three, 7-4.

The Cougars loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of sixth, as Danny Gelalich walked, Cole singled to right-center and Pintar reached base on an error. Brock Watkins then hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Gelalich. The following batter, McIntyre, reached first on a fielder’s choice and Cole scored from third to bring BYU within one, 7-6.

Down 7-6 in the eighth, BYU once again loaded the bases following walks from Watkins and McIntyre and a bunt single by Cowden. Watkins then scored on a walk from Wilk to tie the game at seven heading into the ninth.

Both teams retired the other side in order in the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. With USF runners on second and third and two outs in the top of the tenth, a Bryce Robison strikeout got the Cougars out of the jam.

With Watkins placed on second due to international tie breaker rule to start the bottom of the tenth, an intentional walk on McIntyre placed Cougars on first and second. After an out, next batter Gambill fouled off three pitches before batting to a 2-2 count. Gambill then ripped the next pitch into the gap in left-center field, sending Watkins home from second and sealing the 8-7 BYU win.

Robison got the win, retiring the final two batters in the top of the tenth in order. The Cougars went through five pitchers on the night and gave up just two hits in the final six innings.  

The win gives BYU its fifth straight win and puts the Cougars atop the WCC standings with a 4-0 record early in the conference season. 

Player Highlights

• Cole: 2-4, 2 H, 1 RBI, 1 HR, 2 R
• Gambill: 1-5, 1 H, 1 RBI, 1 R
• Watkins: 4-1, 1 H, 1 RBI, 2 R
• Robison: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0R, 1K (win)

BYU remains at Miller Park this weekend for another two games versus the Dons. The two teams will play Friday, March 26, at 4 p.m. MDT and Saturday, March 27, at 1 p.m. MDT.

Both games will be broadcast live on the BYUtv App. Audio broadcasts will also be available on the BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app. Ticket information can be found at BYUtickets.com.

Game Notes

• The 8-7 win is BYU’s second extra-inning win of the 2021 season. The Cougars’ other extra-inning win came against Texas State in the fourth game of the season, with BYU winning 7-6 in ten innings when Andrew Pintar scored on a sacrifice fly from Austin Deming
• The win marks BYU’s biggest come-from-behind win of the season. The previous was a 5-4 win over Texas on Feb. 27, when the Cougars scored five runs in the sixth after facing a 4-0 deficit

PROVO, Utah — The Cougars returned to Miller Park Tuesday for the 2021 home season opener against Utah Valley after having played 32 of its previous 33 games on the road over the past two seasons. BYU (7-11, 3-0) defeated UVU 11-7 in the UCCU Crosstown Clash. The win marked the Cougars 10th-straight victory over the Wolverines. 

BYU now turns its attention to the University of San Francisco for a three-game series at Miller Park Thursday through Saturday, March 25-27. The Thursday and Friday games are set for 4:00 p.m. MDT, with the Saturday matchup at 1:00 p.m. MDT.

All three games will be broadcast live on the BYUtv App as well as the BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app. Ticket information can be found at BYUtickets.com.
 
BYU VS USF
The Cougars and Dons have met 33 times with BYU holding a 19-14 advantage in the series. Due to the 2020 pandemic, the conference foes last met during the 2019 regular season at BYU on May 9-11. BYU took games one (20-3) and three (17-9), while USF took game two (9-1). The Cougars would go on to finish the season 36-17 and win the WCC regular-season title with 18-9 conference record. 

SCOUTING USF
The Dons enter the weekend series in Provo having dropped two of three games in conference play against Pepperdine (2-16, 7-6, 8-10) last weekend. USF is currently tied for 6th place in the conference with Saint Mary's at 1-2. 

Darius Foster leads the Dons in hitting (.341) and slugging percentage (.610). He is third in runs scored (10) and total bases (25). Jacob Munoz leads the team in RBIs (17) and total bases (30). 

Landen Bourassa, USF’s innings pitched leader, will start game one for the Dons. The right-hander has logged 24.2 innings in five starts with a 5.84 ERA and 20 Ks. Other top pitchers for USF include Trevor Meisner, who has an ERA of 2.08 and has appeared in seven games with one start for the Dons. Alex Pham has also appeared in seven games and has an ERA of 2.95 with 35 Ks in 21.1 innings. 
 
BYU ON OFFENSE
Centerfielder Mitch McIntyre leads the Cougars in several statistical categories, including hits (23), triples (2), total bases (31) and steals (2). The senior is also second in batting average (.329) and doubles (4). 

Danny Gelalich is leading the Cougars with a .333 average and is coming off a big week at Dixie State and LMU. Gelalich appeared in all four road games for BYU last week. In 10 at-bats he collected six hits (.600) and had a slugging percentage of .900. He scored a run and drove in two runs to lead BYU to a sweep of LMU. Through three WCC games, Gelalich is leading the conference in average (.556), is second in slugging (.889) and OBP (.556). At LMU in game two he was a HR a way from hitting for the cycle.

Sophomore Andrew Pintar is also among the team leaders for BYU. Pintar is coming off a big night for BYU on Tuesday vs UVU. The second baseman went three for three at the plate with two doubles and a triple. He drove in three runs and scored four in the Cougars 11-7 win. 

COUGARS ON THE HILL
Starting game one for BYU Thursday is senior right-hander Easton Walker, who has appeared in five games and started four. In 25.2 innings, Walker has an ERA of 0.70 with 23 strikeouts, while holding opposing hitters to a .170 average. Brock Watkins and Jacob Wilk also had big nights for the Cougars vs UVU, as both had a home run and also scored twice. 

Through three WCC games, four BYU pitchers are among the top 10 in the conference in ERA. Carter Smith is leading the conference at 0.00, Walker is third at 1.50, and Bryce Robison at 2.08 and Jack Sterner are tied for ninth. Walker will start game one, Smith game two and Sterner game three for the Cougars this weekend vs USF.