BYU baseball routs San Francisco
BYU senior outfielder Brock Hale (center) celebrates with his teammates after hitting a grand slam home run in the fifth inning against San Francisco on Thursday, May 9, 2019.
BYU senior outfielder Brock Hale hit a grand slam home run on Thursday, May 9, 2019, as the Cougars routed San Francisco at Miller Field.
How good was BYU’s offense on Thursday night against San Francisco?
There was almost as much traffic on the base paths as there was in the Marriott Center parking lot as parents and family rushed to see local elementary children perform in the annual “Hope of America” concert.
The Cougars jumped on Dons ace Riley Orindo early and earned a 20-3 rout in front of 1,554 fans at Miller Field.
“He wasn’t sharp,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We could tell that immediately. He was having trouble locating his fastball. We did a good job laying off the ball when it was out of the zone and attacking pitches in the zone.”
BYU (32-13 overall) banged out 16 hits but also took advantage of a USF pitching staff that had a hard time locating the strike zone. Five Dons pitchers issued a combined nine walks and hit six BYU batters. The Cougars opened the eighth inning by scoring five runs … on zero hits. BYU eventually tallied seven runs in the eighth on one hit, with USF walking five batters and hitting four.
The 20 runs was a season high for the Cougars. Every BYU starter had at least one hit and scored at least one run.
“We’ve swung the bat like this pretty much all year,” Littlewood said. “I feel like this offense is confident every single night. After the game I told them to erase the score in minds, press reset and come back tomorrow zero-zero because it will be a battle.”
BYU committed two errors in the first inning but starting pitcher Jordan Wood got a 1-6-3 double play to get out of trouble. In the bottom of the inning, Noah Hill and Hale singled, followed by an RBI double from Jackson Cluff to plate Hill and open the scoring. The Cougars had five straight hits against Ornido, who came into the game with a 2.55 ERA. Ryan Sepede and Mitch McIntyre added RBI hits to give BYU an early 4-0 lead.
Danny Gelalich had a two-out double down the left-field line in the third and scored McIntyre for a 5-1 BYU advantage. The Cougars scored two in the fifth to make it 7-1 and Hale’s ninth home run of the season – and his second career grand slam – made it 11-1.
The game got out of hand in the eighth when the Cougars sent 13 batters to the plate.
Wood surrendered a solo home run to Robert Emery in the second but scattered seven hits and struck out four in 6 2/3 innings. Bo Burrup pitched two innings of scoreless relief.
Gelalich had three hits to lead the Cougars with six others – Hill, Hale, Cluff, Sepede, McIntyre and Carson Mathews – notching two hits apiece.
The win keeps the Cougars solidly in first place in the West Coast Conference with a 16-6 record with five games to play.
“We’re kind of just counting wins right now,” Littlewood said. “Two more wins probably get us in the WCC Tournament, that’s pretty cut and dried. Four wins is going to get us a conference championship.
Those are the things we’re looking at right now.”
BYU and USF (14-11, 27-23) will meet again on Friday at 6 p.m. MT, with the final game of the series scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday.
Bo Burrup 6-5 222 LHP (Pocatello, Idaho)
Served a mission to Baltimore, Md. … Has appeared in 78 career games, starting six. … Has a 9-7 overall record and an ERA of 5.23 with 86 strikeouts.
Riley Gates 6-1 187 LHP (Santa Clara, Utah)
Served a mission to Resistencia, Argentina. … Has appeared in 58 career games, starting four. … Has a 7-2 overall record and an ERA of 4.98 with 90 strikeouts.
Brock Hale 6-0 205 OF (Mesa, Ariz.)
Served a mission to Santiago, Chile. … Has started 156 games in his career and compiled 219 hits. … Has a career batting average of .361 with 42 doubles, eight triples, 29 home runs and 127 RBI. … Honorable mention All-WCC as a sophomore and first team All-WCC as a junior.
Noah Hill 5-9 187 C (Flower Mound, Texas)
Has played in 88 games during his career and started 58. … Has started 36 games this year at catcher. … Has a career batting average of .303 with seven doubles and 21 RBI.
Brian Hsu 6-3 194 IF (San Ramon, Calif.)
Has played in 111 games in his career, starting 89. … Has started all 41 games in 2019. … Has a career batting average of .304, hitting .323 this season. … Has totaled 12 doubles, six home runs and 41 RBI in his career.
Blake Inouye 5-11 186 RHP (Henderson, Nev.)
Transferred to BYU from College of Southern Nevada in 2018. … In two seasons has pitched in 41 games, starting seven, and has compile a 2-6 overall record. … Has amassed 73 strikeouts and posted an ERA of 5.17.
Casey Jacobsen 5-11 193 IF (Flower Mound, Texas)
Has played in 88 games in his career, starting 51. … In 212 at-bats has collected nine doubles, three triples and three home runs while driving in 22 runs and hitting for an average of .236.
Keaton Kringlen 5-11 210 OF (Cedar City, Utah)
Has played in 188 games during his career, starting 176. … In 692 at-bats has totaled 216 hits, 40 doubles, four triples and 12 home runs while driving in 124 runs. … Has a career batting average of .312. … Hit .369 and selected as WCC Freshman of the Year in 2016. … Was named All-WCC second team in 2018.
Jordan Wood 6-4 199 RHP (Friendswood, Texas)
Served a mission to London, England. … Has appeared in 57 games during his career, starting 35 and compiling an overall record of 15-8. … In 235.2 innings has 173 strikeouts and an ERA of 4.09. … Was selected first team All-WCC as a junior.
WCC Standings
BYU 15-6, 31-13
Gonzaga 16-8, 25-20
Loyola Marymount 14-10, 27-20
San Francisco 14-10, 27-22
Saint Mary’s 12-9, 27-19
Pepperdine 11-10, 21-20
San Diego 12-12, 29-20
Pacific 8-13, 21-22
Portland 5-16, 23-22
Santa Clara 4-17, 11-35
This Week’s Schedule
Thursday, May 9
San Francisco at BYU, 6 p.m. MT (BYUtv)
Friday, May 10
Santa Clara at Saint Mary’s, 4 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
San Francisco at BYU, 6 p.m. MT (BYUtv)
Pacific at San Diego, 7 p.m. MT
Pepperdine at Portland, 7 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Lamar at Gonzaga, 7 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Saturday, May 11
San Francisco at BYU, 1 p.m. MT (BYUtv)
Santa Clara at Saint Mary’s, 2 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Pepperdine at Portland, 2 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Pacific at San Diego, 5:30 p.m. MT
Lamar at Gonzaga, 7 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Sunday, May 12
Pepperdine at Portland, 2 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Santa Clara at Saint Mary’s, 2 p.m. MT (TheW.tv)
Pacific at San Diego, 2 p.m. MT
Lamar at Gonzaga, 4 p.m. MT (SWX)
San Francisco (14-10, 27-22) at BYU (15-6, 31-13)
Thursday, 6 p.m. MT
Millar Park, Provo
TV: BYUtv (Games 2 and 3)
Radio: ESPN 960, BYU Radio
Online: Live video at BYUtv Digital for all games; Live stats at byucougars.com
The Word: BYU leads the overall series with San Francisco 17-13. … The Cougars are 8-1 against USF in Provo. … BYU has played 11 straight games on the road, compiling a 7-4 record. … The Cougars took two of three last week at Loyola Marymount. … The Dons won two of three at home against Pepperdine. … BYU is No. 30 in RPI this week.