PROVO — A three-run home run in the bottom the seventh inning by shortstop Brock Watkins gave BYU a 3-2 win over Dixie State on Tuesday night at Miller Park.

“The in-state games are always hard fought and it was great to come out with a win tonight,” said BYU interim head coach Trent Pratt. “I’m really happy for Brock and his big hit. Our bullpen was outstanding again tonight. They came in and did what they always do–just shut things down.”

Down 2-0 with one out in the seventh, Watkins hit a towering home run over the right-field fence that also scored Chase Peterson, who had reached on a walk, and Ozzie Pratt, who had singled to left. The three-run bomb was Watkins’ sixth home run of the season, tying him for the team lead.

Following a scoreless eighth inning, Cougar closer Reid McLaughlin came on in the ninth and picked up his 10th save of the year, recording a fly out to center field and back-to-back strikeouts to preserve the 3-2 win over the Trailblazers.

Janzen Keisel earned the win for BYU, and Jacob Taggart suffered the loss for Dixie State.

Up next for the Cougars is a three-game WCC series with Pacific at Miller Park. The Thursday night game is being broadcast on ESPNU with an 8 p.m. start. The Friday game is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on the BYUtv App, with the Saturday game set for 1 p.m. on BYUtv.

Zavodnik hits walk-off for BYU win over Utah State

PROVO, Utah — With a sixth-inning walk-off home run by Violet Zavodnik, BYU softball earned a 9-1 victory over Utah State University on Tuesday evening at Gail Miller Field.

After Autumn Moffat-Korth retired the first three Utah State batters in the top of the first, Taylei Williams had the first hit of the night to put BYU on base. With the bases loaded, Alyssa Podhurcak singled to left center, sending Williams home for a 1-0 lead. Marissa Chavez continued the momentum with a double to put the Cougars up by three. Singling to right center, Mallory Barber brought Chavez home to give BYU its fourth run.

In the top of the fourth, the Aggies scored an unearned run off an error for their first and only run of the night. The Cougars responded in the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back doubles by Williams and Zavodnik to strengthen BYU’s lead. With BYU up by five runs, Huntyr Ava had BYU’s final hit of the inning with an RBI single, bringing home Zavodnik to make the score 7-1.

The Aggies attempted to rally, getting two of their batters on base in the top of the fifth inning, but a fly ball caught by Podhurcak would end the inning.

Utah State then went three up, three down in the top of the sixth, giving the Cougars a chance to end the game early with the mercy rule. Zavodnik took advantage of the opportunity with a two-run walk-off homer to give the Cougars the 9-1 win.

Up next, the Cougars will host Saint Mary’s on Friday for BYU’s final series of the regular season, starting a doubleheader at 5 p.m. MDT. The game will be streaming live on BYUtv.

Portland rallies to top UVU baseball 6-4

PORTLAND, Ore. — Connor Hall and Mick Madsen both belted out early home runs to give Utah Valley an early 4-1 lead, but Portland responded in the middle and late innings to record a 6-4 come-from-behind midweek victory on Wednesday afternoon at Joe Etzel Field in Portland.

Hall belted out a three-run shot for UVU (16-32) in the second and Madsen followed with a solo homer in the third, but the West Coast Conference Pilots (27-18) responded with two runs in the fourth and three in the seventh to record the victory in the lone season meeting between the two clubs.

“We competed very hard and did some nice things on both sides of the ball,” head UVU coach Eddie Smith said. “We just need to be able to make one more break and we can find ourselves winning a game like that.”

After UVU retired the Pilots in order in the last of the eighth, UP closer Peter Allegra put the game away by retiring the Wolverines in order in the ninth.

Caleb Franzen picked up the win in relief for Portland after tossing 2.1 scoreless frames to improve to 2-5 while Allegro pitched the final inning and two thirds to record his 10th save. Carson Brown was tagged with the loss for UVU to drop to 1-2. Despite the setback, UVU had strong relief outings from Luke McCollough (1.2 scoreless innings), Blake Zeleny (1.0 scoreless inning), and Nick Sims (1.0 scoreless inning).

Madsen collected two of UVU’s four hits in the game by going 2-for-4 with a homer and a double, while Hall went 1-for-3 with a three-run home run. Tammaro led Portland with a 2-for-3 performance with two runs batted in.

The contest marked UVU’s fifth game in the past six days and fifth of a current nine-game road trip.

The Wolverines will continue the trip by heading south on I-5 to return to conference play with a big three-game series at WAC foe Sacramento State. The series will run Friday to Sunday at John Smith Field in Sacramento. UVU will then cap the nine-game trip with a Monday tilt at Pacific on Monday, May 16.

BYU women’s golf finishes seventh at regionals

The Cougars had a good final round at the Franklin Regional on Wednesday, moving from 9th place to 7th, but failed to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

The three-day total for BYU at Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn., was 879 (+15). Vanderbilt won the regional with a score of 848 (-16) and will advance to the NCAA Championships along with Alabama (-8), Wake Forest (-3) and Texas A&M (+3).

BYU’s Grace Summerhays tied for 10th after carding a 219 (73-73-73). Teammate Alysha Mae Mateo (19th) and Lila Galea’i (tied for 21st) each shot -3 on Wednesday.

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