BYU baseball scored seven runs on nine hits, including three home runs by catcher Collin Reuter, in a 7-5 win over Texas on Saturday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin. The victory gave the Cougars a 2-1 series win over the Longhorns, their second Big 12 series win of the season.

BYU improved to 13-15 (6-9) on the year, while the loss dropped Texas to 19-13 (7-5). The Cougars scored seven runs on nine hits, putting runners on base in all nine innings, while Texas had five runs on seven hits.

“It was a great weekend for our baseball team,” said BYU head coach Trent Pratt. “We got timely hitting today and played great defense. Our pitching staff did a great job of not allowing Texas to have a big inning today and throughout the series. I’m proud of our guys. They believed in themselves and got two big road wins against a really good team.”

The Cougars got onboard first with two runs in the top of the first inning on a walk by designated hitter Keoni Painter and a home run over the leftfield wall by catcher Collin Reuter for a 2-0 lead.

BYU tacked on two more runs in the second inning on three hits for a 4-0 advantage. Crew Robinson got things started with a single to right and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Chipper Beck then singled to left to score Robinson before advancing to third on a single by Ryker Schow. Outfielder Luke Anderson then picked up an RBI scoring Beck on sacrifice fly to right.

Texas got on the board in the bottom half of the second on a solo home run by left fielder Porter Brown to make the score 4-1.

Reuter homered again in the bottom of the third, with Painter onboard to give the Cougars a 6-1 lead. The Longhorns responded with another run in the fourth inning on two walks and a sacrifice fly to cut the Cougar advantage to 6-2.

BYU picked up another run in the fifth on Reuter’s third blast of the day, a solo shot to leadoff the inning. Texas got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run from shortstop Jalin Flores for a 7-3 score.

After a scoreless sixth inning, the Longhorns scored two runs in the seventh on a hit batter and two doubles to close out the scoring at 7-5.

BYU relievers Mason Olson and Stone Cushing pitched the final 3.1 innings of the game, surrendering three hits and two runs while shutting out the Longhorns over the final two frames. Cushing picked up his Big 12-leading seventh save of the year.

Up next for BYU baseball is Utah on Tuesday, March 12 at 6 p.m. MT at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City. The game will be broadcast live on the BYU Radio App, BYUradio.org and 107.9 FM in the local market with the Voice of the Cougars, Greg Wrubell, on play-by-play. The game will also be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

BYU women’s hoops star Lauren Gustin gets double-double at all-star game

Lauren Gustin scored 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to secure another double-double as Team Miller fell to Team Lieberman 95-88 in the 2024 Women’s College All-Star Game on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.

The AP All-America Honorable Mention played 26 minutes going 7-of-14 from the field for 15 points while grabbing 15 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass. Gustin also dished two assists in the seven-point loss.

Despite the 15-point effort from Gustin, Team Lieberman scored the final nine points of the game to earn a 95-88 victory.

Cougar men’s volleyball loses at USC in five sets

BYU’s record-setting 12 aces were not enough in five-set battle against conference opponent No. 13 USC as the Cougars fell 3-2 (25-20, 25-27, 28-26, 27-29, 16-18) on Saturday evening at the Galen Center in their final match of the regular season.

Sophomore middle blocker Ethan Gant led the BYU defense with a career-high and match-high nine blocks. He also added a career-high seven kills on a .400 hitting percentage.

BYU’s pin hitters Kupono Browne, Miks Ramanis and Luke Benson all registered double-digit kills, for the second night in a row, totaling 51 of BYU’s 70 kills. Browne led all players with 20, while Ramanis finished with 16 and Benson totaled 15 kills. Middle blocker Gavin Julien also recorded double-digit kills, finishing with 11 kills on 15 swings. Setter Tyler Herget also reached a new career-high of 59 assists.

The Cougars (16-8, 7-5 MPSF) fought by putting up a season-high of 12 aces, with five from Ramanis and five from Browne. Twelve aces tonight is the most recorded by BYU in a single match since Jan. 7, 2017, tied for the fifth-most in BYU’s rally scoring era. The last, and only other, instance two players have recorded five aces in the same match in BYU history occurred on Mar. 25, 2022 when Browne and All-American Davide Gardini both recorded five aces on the road against Pepperdine.

USC (12-12, 3-7 MPSF) outhit the Cougars with a .321 team hitting percentage compared to BYU’s .281 team clip. The Trojans also led in digs with a season-high of 50, with BYU recording 42 digs in the match. Freshman outside hitter Noah Roberts led the Trojans with 19 kills on a .593 clip, including nine digs and four blocks.

The Cougars will now have a bye-week before traveling back to California as USC is the host of the 2024 MPSF Tournament which will be held from April 17-20. With at least one win over USC, BYU has been guaranteed no less than a three seed in the tournament.

BYU softball loses 5-4 in extra innings at UCF

BYU softball rallied to take UCF into extras, but ultimately fell in game three of the series, 5-4 at the UCF Softball Complex on Saturday afternoon.

After trailing by two through the first four innings, the Cougars (21-16, 4-11 Big 12) took a one-run lead in the fifth and the sixth, but the Knights scored the final two runs of the game to take the series.

The Cougars responded in the top of the sixth, loading the bases again with Maddie Bejarano, Violet Zavodnik and Huntyr Ava all reaching base safely. Lily Owens brought Bejarano home on a sacrifice fly to give BYU a 4-3 advantage, but a strikeout the next at-bat left the bases loaded.

UCF got two walks and a single in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game after scoring one run to send the game into extra innings.

After the Cougar side was retired on ground outs in the top of the eighth inning, UCF took three just three pitches to double into left center and down the right field line, walking it off to secure the series sweep.

The Cougars will return to the state of Utah to visit Utah Valley on Tuesday, April 9 at 6 p.m. MDT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

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