The Cougars hammered Utah Valley pitching from the start and continued the onslaught for most of the night in Tuesday’s 12-5 victory at UCCU Ballpark in the first of two meetings between the schools.

“I thought we got great work from our hitters,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “They came out with really good energy and we did a good job of controlling the strike zone. I thought we didn’t swing out of the zone and made them (UVU) pay when they threw the ball over the middle of plate. Talking about the three aspects of the game, we pitched it well, we played good defense and got timely hitting so I was really pleased with it.”

Alex Sardina knocked in four runs on two hits, one of them a home run, Cole Gambill stroked another homer and freshman Mason Strong knocked in two big runs as BYU banged out 12 hits overall.

“Mason has been hurt,” Littlewood said. “He had a meniscus injury and so he’s just coming back off that. I thought Mason had the at-bat of the game. The score was close at that time and there was a little bit of a momentum swing right there. He had a seven or eight-pitch at bat. That was tremendous.”

With two outs in the top of the first, Gambill walked and Ryan Sepede singled up the middle to put two runners on. Hayden Leatham followed with a hard ground ball to shortstop that resulted in a throwing error that allowed two runs to score for a quick 2-0 BYU lead.

Sardina, the No. 9 hitter, roped one over the left field fence for a 2-run home run in the top of the second, scoring Jacob Wilk from second, who had doubled. That sequence gave the Cougars a 4-0 lead.

Gambill led off the top of the fifth with a solo home run to right to push BYU’s lead to 5-0. Later in the inning, Leatham hit an RBI single, driving in Sepede from second, for a 6-0 advantage.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Cougars’ Justin Reiser hit the first two batters he faced and ended with those runners at second and third after a passed ball. BYU gave up a run on a one-out ground out by Garrett Broussard that cut their lead to 6-2.

BYU blew the game open with six runs in the top of the seventh. The Cougars loaded the bases with two outs when UVU pitcher Hunter Tueller hit consecutive batters. Working a full count, Strong stroked a single up the middle to score two runs for an 8-2 Cougar lead.

Later in the inning, Wilk walked to load the bases again and Sardina knocked in two more runs with a bloop single to right, making the score 10-2. A wild pitch allowed another run to score and Mitch McIntyre doubled to left to bring in Sardina for a 12-2 bulge.

On a staff day, BYU used eight pitchers, largely to good effect as five of them didn’t surrender a hit. Starter Bryce Robison threw two innings and struck out three to earn the victory.

BYU pitchers held UVU without a hit until the bottom of the fifth when Kayler Yates doubled to left off of Carter Smith. Copper Hansen followed with a hard shot over the center fielder’s head for a triple to score Yates and get the home team on the board.

In the bottom of the seventh, UVU’s Connor Hall smacked a two-run homer to deep center off of Nate Dahl to cut the deficit to 12-4. In the bottom of the ninth, Spencer Olsen hit a solo home run to right for the Wolverines.

The Cougars are now 33-9 all time against Utah Valley.

BYU (8-10 overall, 1-2 WCC) hosts preseason WCC favorite and No. 23 Gonzaga for a three-game set beginning Thursday after losing two of three at Portland last weekend.

“Portland is a really good team,” Littlewood said. “They’re a veteran team, they pitched it really well and they played really well at home. I felt like we battled as well as we could up there. We’re going to see better pitching this week than we saw at Portland. We’re going see a potential first rounder on Thursday with (Gabriel) Hughes. He’s got good velocity and he’s got great stuff. So it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re pretty good, too, on the pitching side. So our message honestly, it seems simple, but swing at strikes, take balls, play good defense and pound the zone.”

Hughes, a 6-foot-4 right hander, is 4-0 this season with a 1.74 ERA and 49 strikeouts. BYU will counter with sophomore right hander Jack Sterner (1-1, 2.2.81 ERA, 21 strikeouts) in Game 1.

Utah Valley (6-14 overall, 2-7 WAC), which has lost five games in a row, has four games scheduled with Cal Bakersfield starting Friday.