Mark Anderson cruises to 8-0 defeat of UVU

PROVO, Utah – Center fielder Jacob Hannemann went 3 for 4 with four RBI to lead BYU baseball to an 8-0 victory against Utah Valley University Tuesday night at Larry H. Miller Field.

The Cougars evened their record at 14-14, while UVU fell to 9-17.

“Mark Anderson came out and really set a tone for us tonight,” BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said. “I wanted him to finish the game but he did a great job. He was tremendous, we were hoping to get five innings out of him and he just kept cruising along. Our hitters finally came through and we won a game by more than two runs which is nice and gives us a little breathing room.”

Starting pitcher Anderson (3-1) threw 8 and 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out four and using three different fastballs to allow six hits, keeping the Wolverines off balance all night.

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Anderson allowed one extra-base hit, a lead-off double and then retired UVU in order in two innings. He never allowed more than one hit in an inning, or a runner past second base.

“I got back to how I was pitching against LSU (upset No.2 LSU, 9-4) tonight, mixing up my pitches well,” Anderson said. “I was able to keep them off balance and give them as little of an opportunity as possible.”

BYU exploded for two four-run innings to break open the game.  

In the fifth inning, Brock Whitney knocked a standup double to left to open the frame. Kelton Caldwell joined him on base after being hit on the arm by a pitch. Jarvis laid down a sac bunt to move Whitney to third and Caldwell to second. Bret Lopez, who is among the nation’s leaders in sacrifice flies, hit a sac fly to foul territory in right field to score Whitney. Trace Hansen stroked a double to right-center field to score Caldwell. With two outs, Hannemann smashed a two-run homerun over the right field fence to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead.  

Jarrett Jarvis ripped a liner down the third base line for a standup double to kick things off in the seventh inning. Lopez was walked on four straight pitches to get on board. Hansen loaded the bases, laying down a bunt and reaching first after no one was there to receive the throw.

Hannemann again came up with a timely hit, crushing a double to right field to score Jarvis and Lopez, increasing the lead, 6-0. Adam Law sent a shallow floater to left field that the fielder couldn’t catch and scored Hansen. A wild pitch moved Hannemann to third and Law to second with two outs in the inning. A passed ball scored Hannemann for the final run of the game.

“You like to score and put the pressure on every inning, but we’ll take them in bunches if we can,” Littlewood said. “Sometimes hitting is contagious, if everybody in front of you gets a hit, it just kind of snowballs. Our hitters did a good job today being picky and being choosy and not swinging at too many bad pitches and really making them pay when they threw the ball into the zone.”

Two Anderson strikeouts sandwiched Jarvis catching a Wolverine base runner trying to steal third in the top of the second inning to keep UVU from advancing past second.

After a Wolverine reached second in the fourth, the defense retired the next three batters to end the inning.

UVU didn’t reach second base until the ninth inning and Matt Milke produced a strikeout and induced a fly ball in relief for the final out of the game to keep the Wolverines from touching third base.

Hayden Nielsen extended his hitting streak to six games on a single in the fifth inning.

The Cougars return to conference play, traveling to California for a three-game series with Santa Clara beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. PDT. That game will be broadcast live locally on KOVO 960 AM and live audio stream on the Internet.