BYU gave up back-to-back home runs in the top of the ninth inning and watched a 7-6 lead evaporate as eight of Washington State's nine batter recorded hits in their final inning in a 13-7 BYU loss to the visiting Cougars.

BYU led 7-6 heading into the top of the ninth inning, but the lead didn't last. Scott Suttmeier and Paul Gran had back-to-back homers to lead off the frame, giving Washington State the lead for good. Six more hits and two Cougar errors led to the visiting Cougars' seven-run outburst. BYU could make no headway in the bottom of the inning.

Washington State (25-20) took advantage of the Cougars' struggles from the mound.

Freshman right-hander Tyler Westensee, who got the start from the mound, pitched himself into a corner in the top of the third, beaning the first batter, committing an error on a play to first and walking the third to load the bases with only one out.

"We just made some horrible errors," said BYU's coach Vance Law. "Hitting their leadoff guy, stupid errors. Their guys can really score and we were just giving them guys in scoring position."

Suttmeir connected on a 1-1 pitch that bounced just between the outstretched gloves of BYU's shortstop Dan Vargas and second basemen Andrew Law, scoring two red Cougar baserunners. Johnathan Cluff robbed WSU third basemen Gran hit as he crashed into the right-field wall, minimizing the scoring damage. The sacrifice fly did, however, give the Cougars in red a three-run lead with only one hit in the innings.

While the pitching woes were a concern for BYU, the hits continued to come as the Cougars tried to match the runs from Washington State. J.T Musso lead off the third with a single and BYU got two more hits -- including a double from Kasey Ko, who stretched his hitting streak to seven games --in the inning to score two runs.

The BYU Cougars scored two runs each in the fifth and sixth and another in the seventh, while the visiting Cougars scored three in the sixth to set up the final inning.

The same two teams play again tonight at 7 p.m.