Bret Baldwin homered in Utah's 8-7 loss to BYU Thursday. (Photo by George Seeley)
May 18, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY - Brigham Young University's Jeff Hiestand hit a solo home run to lead off the ninth inning Thursday at Franklin Covey Field. That dinger lifted the Cougars to an 8-7 victory over the University of Utah.
Hiestand's second solo shot of the day broke a 7-7 tie. BYU reliever Josh Barrett (3-0) then retired the Utes in order in the bottom half of the frame to preserve the victory for his squad. Utah reliever Brad DeVore (3-4) suffered the loss. He allowed just the home run to Hiestand in 2 1/3 innings of work.
Utah had a four-run lead after three innings. The Utes scored two when BYU left fielder Austin Carter misplayed a Bret Baldwin fly ball. The rally continued when Jay Brossman ripped a run-scoring double down the left-field line. John Welsh followed that with an RBI triple into the right-field corner to make it 4-0.
Hiestand's first homer of the day got BYU started in the top of the fourth, making it 4-1. The Cougars added two more in the inning of Ute starter Josh Cooper to pull within one run, 4-3.
Utah took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Ryan Khoury sacrifice fly. Both teams tallied single runs in the fifth to make it 6-4. The Cougars finally tied things up 6-6 in the sixth, scoring two off Cooper and chasing him from the game. BYU grabbed a 7-6 lead, scoring a single run in the seventh off Utah reliever Brian Lane.
The Utes tied it up at 7-7 when Bret Baldwin hit an opposite field homer off the left-field foul pole in the seventh. But Utah couldn't do any more damage against BYU starter Jordan Muir, who gave way to Barrett in the eighth.