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PROVO — The Portland baseball team, which had never scored more than 10 runs in 2017, opened Thursday night’s series opener at No. 18 BYU with 11 hits, 14 runs and four homers.
And that was just the first two innings.
Bronson Larsen went 2-for-4 with five RBI, and Colton Shaver was 2-for-3 with three RBI to help No. 18 BYU outlast Portland, 23-19 in a slugfest at Miller Park where both teams combined for 43 hits.
“I got frustrated a little bit after the second inning, and I thought this would be a boat race or a weird game,” Larsen said. “After the first inning, I thought we’d get rolling like we had. But we just had to find a way to stick together and get some runs.”
Ryan Hoogerwerf went 4-for-5 with four RBI and two home runs to lead Portland (10-35-1, 5-17 WCC), which had a season-high in scoring in the first three innings.
“I’ve never seen anything like that, in my entire life,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “Hayden Nielsen looked me and asked if we were in the Twilight Zone. It really felt like there was no defense out there, and we were just throwing the ball over the line.
“When we had a 23-18 lead in the ninth inning, it felt like a one-run game.”
Mason Marshall earned his third win of the season, pitching the final 2 ⅓ innings to settle down a game in which both teams combined for 41 hits.
With the win, league-leading BYU (30-15, 18-4 WCC) clinched a spot in the four-team conference tournament in Stockton, California, on May 25.
Designated hitter Colton Shaver entered the game as BYU’s sixth pitcher in the sixth inning as Littlewood searched for answers on the hill. The reliever, who was 6-1 with a 1.13 ERA and 67 strikeouts as the No. 3 option at Jordan High in 2014, delivered a fastball in the low 90s and retired the side in four batters.
.@ColtonSshaver w/a nasty breaking ball for a K works a scoreless half inning as @BYUBaseball comes up in the 6th vs @UPPilotBaseball. pic.twitter.com/ysEXaHxHsB
— BYUtv Sports (@byutvsports) May 12, 2017
“That was probably one of the weirdest games I have ever been a part of,” said Larsen, who was warming up in the bullpen before Shaver made his debut. “If you had told me Shaver would pitch in that game, I would’ve said no. And if you had told me it would be 18-18 in the seventh inning, I would’ve said no, as well.’ “He was honestly amazing. I was laughing in left field, because we’re best friends and (Shaver) is a big goof ball. But I think he impressed everybody.”
Shaver then scored one of BYU’s go-ahead runs as the Cougars, who rank No. 18 nationally by Collegiate Baseball magazine, took an 18-17 lead after six innings.
“I think he was one of the big momentum shifts, that we could put up a zero in one inning,” Littlewood said of the 2014 Deseret News Mr. Baseball. “It was like we didn’t know it could happen in a baseball game.
“He did a great job, and then Mason coming in showed what we can do against this team if we just hit spots. It was a warm day, the ball was flying, and that scares me tomorrow with the wind coming.”
Like most leads in the late-night slugfest, the lead wouldn’t last. Hoogerwerf led off the seventh inning with a single, then sped around and came home on Jason Rosen’s double off the left-centerfield wall a few plays later.
Marshall relieved Shaver in the seventh, got the final out, and BYU had a chance to rally — again — in the marathon battle just two days after a 7-6 loss to Utah in 13 innings.
.@ClawsonDa w/an RBI Single to give @BYUBaseball an 18-17 lead over @UPPilotBaseball in the 6th. #BYU#BYUtv
— BYUtv Sports (@byutvsports) May 12, 2017
Watch https://t.co/UFWEKz5M5Ipic.twitter.com/0qt5ICX07e
Daniel Schneemann led off with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and came home when Tanner Chauncey crushed a sacrifice fly to the opposite field that gave BYU a 19-18 advantage.
The Cougars added three when Larsen crushed a ball over the rightfield fence, and BYU held a 22-18 lead with two innings left to play.
“I was think it was a double again, but it went out,” Larsen said. “I kept them on the warning track, and I thought there was another one.”
BYU added a run when Tanner Chauncey’s first hit of the night drove in Anderson in the bottom of the eighth. Portland pulled one back in the top of the ninth, but Marshall recorded his third strikeout of the game to clinch the series opener.
“It was just perseverance tonight,” Littlewood said. “We told them it would be a long night, and we had to enjoy it, embrace it and just keep playing. Don’t stop. And they did a good job with that.”
