Earl Wilson Stadium
East Harmon Avenue Las Vegas NV 89119
LAS VEGAS -- Senior Matt Rex and freshman Matt Carson led BYU to an opening round victory in the Mountain West Conference Baseball Tournament on Wednesday with a 9-6 defeat over Utah.
Rex earned his first save of the season when he came in relief of Jeff Stone in the sixth inning. Carson, the MWC Freshman of the Year, hit a two-out triple to drive in Michael Davies in the seventh and picked up another RBI in the fifth. BYU advances in the winner's bracket to play Thursday evening against the winner of the San Diego State-UNLV game, while Utah plays New Mexico in the afternoon game.
Both teams got off to shaky starts. Each team advanced its first baserunner to third in the first inning. Utah's Nate Weese singled in Donnie Saba as Stone loaded the bases before striking out Britt Pannier, the All-MWC DH.
BYU's Craig Peterson sprained his ankle as he got on from shortstop Rob Stuart's high throw. Peterson stole second on the next pitch and advance to third on catcher Donald Hawes' high throw.
"That was an aggressive play that set the tone for us," said Rex in reference to Coach Vance Law sending Peterson on the first pitch to second.
Las Vegas native Nick Day drove in Peterson with a sac-fly. Micahel Davies walked, advanced on Carson's fly to right field which was misjudged by Provo's Jed Chrisman in the sun. Kainoa Obrey then belted a two-strike single past short to score Davies and Carson.
Errors continued to plague Utah in the second as both Nick Greene and Aaron Whitley singled. They each scored after Saba mishandled Whitley's hit and Mike goff overthrew the catcher for two errors on the same play.
Stone gave up a single to Sam Swenson, who advanced to third in the third on Weese's double down the right field line. Swenson scored on Stone's wild pitch. BYU answered that run in the bottom of the third when Davies singled, advanced to second on Carson's ground out, moved to third on Jared Cavaness' wild pitch and was driven in by Obrey's sac-fly.
Swenson barely beat out Day's throw to second for a double and scored off Seth King's error at short for Goff to get on. Goff stole second but sprained his ankle and was replaced by pinch-runner Jake Shortino. That replacement paid off when he scored off Pannier's single.
A pair of hits to the left power alley set up BYU's seventh run. Davies scored off Carson's two-out double.
"We were having too many pop ups and coach told us we needed to get the ball out of the air," said Carson.
In the sixth Stone loaded the bases and was relieved by Rex after Weese's fielder's choise scored Stuart. Shortino's sac-fly off Rex scored Adam Castleton to close the gap to 7-6 favoring BYU.
Cavaness suffered an injury and was replaced by Jon Lewis in the seventh. Then Carson got his two-out triple and scored when Stuart booted Obrey's blast.
"Matt Rex was just outstanding today," said Law. "He pitches like the saavy veteran and works within his frame."
"I had great movement on my ball," said Rex.
"They jumped on us the last time we played," said Davies in reference to the Utes who were seeded fourth in the tie-breaking formula behind BYU who also had a 15-15 league record. "We wanted to get up early on them this time."
BYU improves to 28-27 overall, while Utah falls to 25-29. Stone got his 10th win of the season, making him one of few Cougar pitchers to post double-figure victories in two seasons.
The Automated ScoreBookUTAH vs Brigham Young Univ.
May 17, 2000 at Las Vegas, Nevada (Wilson Stadium)
UTAH 6 (25-29)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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SABA, Donnie lf.......... 3 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 0
CASTLETON, Adam 2b....... 5 1 1 0 0 0 3 3 1
SWENSON, Sam cf.......... 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0
WEESE, Nate 1b........... 5 0 2 2 0 0 10 0 1
GOFF, Mike 3b............ 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0
SHORTINO, Jake pr/3b.... 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
CHRISMAN, Jed rf......... 3 0 1 0 2 1 3 0 2
PANNIER, Brit dh......... 4 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 5
HAWES, Donald c.......... 5 0 1 0 0 1 3 1 1
STUART, Rob ss........... 5 1 2 0 0 1 1 2 2
CAVANESS, Jared p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
LEWIS, Jon p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Totals................... 38 6 11 5 5 7 24 11 12
Brigham Young Univ. 9 (28-27)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
WHITLEY, Aaron dh........ 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
PETERSON, Craig 1b....... 4 1 1 0 0 0 6 0 0
HAGUEWOOD, Ty 1b........ 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1
DAY, Nick lf............. 3 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
DAVIES, Michael c........ 3 4 3 0 1 0 6 2 0
CARSON, Matt rf.......... 4 2 2 2 0 0 5 0 0
OBREY, Kainoa 3b......... 3 0 1 4 0 0 1 2 1
KING, Seth ss............ 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2
GREENE, Nick cf.......... 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0
MATHIS, Nate 2b.......... 3 0 2 0 0 0 2 3 0
STONE, Jeff p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
REX, Matt p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 33 9 11 7 1 3 27 10 5
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
UTAH................ 101 022 000 - 6 11 6
Brigham Young Univ.. 321 010 20X - 9 11 3
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E - SABA; GOFF; CHRISMAN; HAWES; STUART 2; DAVIES; KING; MATHIS. DP - Utes
1. LOB - Utes 12; Cougars 5. 2B - SWENSON; WEESE; GOFF; CARSON. 3B - CARSON.
HBP - SWENSON; GREENE. SH - MATHIS. SF - SHORTINO; DAY; OBREY. SB - GOFF;
PETERSON; GREENE. CS - HAWES; WHITLEY.
UTAH IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
CAVANESS, Jared..... 5.2 9 7 3 1 2 24 27
LEWIS, Jon.......... 2.1 2 2 1 0 1 9 11
Brigham Young Univ. IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
STONE, Jeff......... 5.1 10 6 4 3 4 27 31
REX, Matt........... 3.2 1 0 0 2 3 11 14
Win - STONE (10-5). Loss - CAVANESS (4-7). Save - REX (1).
WP - CAVANESS 2; STONE 3. HB - LEWIS; STONE.
Umpires - Home:Dan Pedersen 1st:Ray Belfiore 2nd:Bill Speck 3rd:Dale Luker
Start: 3:03 Time: 2:45 Attendance: 150
Game notes:
Tuesday Game two of MWC Tournament
This Wednesday's 4 p.m. (MDT) at Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference Tournament is the fourth time BYU, 27-27 and 15-15 in the MWC, and Utah, 25-28 and 15-15, will have squared off in baseball playoff competition.
In previous years the rivals have met each other in post-season play at Honolulu (1982), Provo (1985) and Salt Lake City (1958).
"Utah has been playing well for the last month, while we've been up and down," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "I think our guys will be ready to play when it counts."
The probable pitching rotation for BYU is Jeff Stone (9-5, 6.20) vs. Utah in the Wednesday afternoon game. On Thursday Micah Mangrum (7-8, 5.05) is expected to get the nod for either the afternoon or evening game.
Among the hot players for BYU are three newcomers, Las Vegas native Nick Day, pitcher Nate Fernley and freshman Matt Carson.
Day, a senior outfielder, is having his best season of his collegiate mark in his only year with the Cougars as the All-America candidate has better marks in runs, hits, RBI, walks, strikeouts and stolen bases than any of his years at Stanford.
Fernley was just named at the Mountain West Pitcher of the Week after throwing 98 pitches in his first start in 23 appearances to beat New Mexico in the final game at Cougar Field. Fernley, a transfer from Long Beach City College, has six saves this season.
Carson, a right fielder, leads the team with a .397 batting average and hit .450 in conference play. He has a current six-game hitting streak.
"I know our guys can compete with every team in the league," said Law. "We are better on paper than we have played. We didn't play up to our potential. We have a lot of good, young players who will form the nucleus for our future. "
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