STOCKTON, Calif. — Seven innings of shutout baseball by starting pitcher Jack Sterner, combined with a leadoff home run in the second inning by Cole Gambill, proved to be the winning combination as BYU defeated Pacific 5-0 in game two of the three-game WCC series on Friday. 

"Jack was great tonight," said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. "He really had good command of all four pitches—slider, changeup, fastball and spike curveball—tonight, which makes him almost unhittable. I thought Carter Smith came in and pitched real well the last two innings to close it out." 

Sterner went seven innings allowing just two of the 22 Tigers he faced to reach base. The Cougar sophomore from Laguna Niguel, California threw 82 pitches in what proved to be his longest outing of the year.

“I felt really comfortable on the mound tonight,” said Sterner. “I had all my pitches working, which helped me get ahead in the count and keep the pitch count down. Cole’s long ball gave us an early lead which allowed me to pitch ahead.”

After a three-up, three-down first inning by both teams, Gambill led off the bottom of the second with a blast over the centerfield wall to give BYU an early 1-0 lead. The home run was his ninth of the year and gives the junior 33 RBI on the year.

BYU added a run in the seventh on a Freddy Achecar single through the left side of the infield that scored Gambill, who had reached on a single and stole second base. The Cougars tacked on another run in the eighth inning with a bases loaded walk by Joshua Cowden to score Brock Watkins and extend the lead to 3-0.

Walks by Achecar and Mitch McIntyre, combined with two Pacific errors and a single by Bryan Call, gave BYU two more runs in the top of the ninth and pushed the final score to 5-0.

The Cougars (20-25, 12-11 WCC) will face the Tigers (15-29, 5-15 WCC) in the third and final game of the series at Klein Family Field on Saturday at 12 p.m. PT. The game will be broadcast on the WCC Network. The audio broadcasts will air on the BYU Sports Network: BYU Radio FM 107.9 FM, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.

Photos by Samantha Toy | Pacific

STOCKTON, California — BYU baseball heads back to California this weekend for a three-game series with WCC foe Pacific at Klein Family Field on May 13-15.

Thursday and Friday games are scheduled for 6 p.m. PT, with the Saturday matchup at 12 p.m. PT. All three games will be streamed live on the WCC Network. The games will also be broadcast on the BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app—with Greg Wrubell and Tuckett Slade on the call.

BYU (19-24, 11-10 WCC) has won seven of its last eight games headed into the Pacific series. The seven wins includes a victory over No. 26 ranked ASU (8-5), a three-game sweep (12-0, 4-2, 4-3) of Saint Mary's, a win over Utah Valley (11-4) in the UCC Crosstown Clash and a 2-1 series win over San Diego (6-4, 11-10, 12-13), who began the series in first place in the WCC.

Pacific (14-28, 4-14 WCC) enters the weekend series with BYU having won four if its last seven games, including a victory over No. 18 ranked Stanford (15-12), a victory over San Francisco (8-7) and a 2-1 series win over Santa Clara (11-7, 6-7, 11-3).

The Cougars are currently in fifth place in the WCC standings with a 11-10 record, while the Tigers are in 10th at 4-14.

BYU and Pacific have met 27 times in baseball, with the Cougars holding a 15-12 series advantage. BYU has played at Pacific 18 times with a record of 10-8. 

Due to the 2020 pandemic, the WCC foes last met during the 2019 regular season in Stockton on April 25-27. The Cougars swept the series 3-0 (11-7, 12-1, 5-0) and went on to finish the season at 36-17 and win the WCC regular season title with a 18-9 record. 

BYU infielder Andrew Pintar was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week on Monday for his performance in four road games last week. Pintar was also honored by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as one of its National Players of the Week. 

In 21 at-bats over the four games, Pintar had 10 hits, including three home runs, a double and a triple. He drove in eight runs, scored seven times and drew two walks. Pintar also had at least two hits in every game, including three hits in each of the first two games of the three-game series at San Diego. He amassed 19 total bases, hit .476 with an OBP of .522 and a slugging percentage of .905.

Pintar’s hitting, combined with tough BYU pitching, proved to be the difference in the Cougars 6-4 win over the first-place Toreros on Thursday. In five plate appearances, he had two home runs, a triple, four RBI and scored three times.