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SALT LAKE CITY — If there’s one thing that can be learned from the BYU-Utah rivalry, it’s that anything can happen.
Everything seems to go out the window when the Utes and the Cougars meet on the field, pitch or court. That was the case, again, Tuesday night.
The Cougars entered the game with one of the longest winning streaks in the country at eight games while the Utes had lost their last nine in a row. That didn’t seem to matter, however, as the Utes took down the Cougars, 8-6, to end both streaks.
The Utes got off to a hot start and never looked back.
Oliver Dunn got things going for the Utes, leading off with a triple in the bottom of the first inning. Zack Moeller, the next batter, drove Dunn home with an RBI double to give the Utes a 1-0 lead.
The scoring wouldn’t stop there for the Utes. Shea Kramer singled with no outs and the bases loaded later in the inning to send Moeller and Erick Migueles home to make it a 3-0 lead for Utah. Chandler Anderson finished the inning off for the Utes, bringing Rykker Tom home with an RBI single to give the Utes a 4-0 lead after the first inning.
Tom acknowledged that the team came ready to play against their rival.
“We all had that energy,” Tom said. “We just had that confidence going into it that these guys weren’t going to beat us.”
The Utes recorded five hits and four runs in the first inning on a BYU pitching staff that was playing some of the best baseball in the nation. Coming into the rivalry matchup, the Cougars were allowing just 7.37 hits per nine innings; the Utes, however, would finish with 11 hits.
“We got good pitches to hit and we hit them,” Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said, speaking about Utah's good start. “Dunn got us going when he took that first pitch he sees. … Those are good things to start games with.”
The Cougars were able to get one run back from the Utes in the second inning thanks to a Brian Hsu two-out, RBI single that brought Keaton Kringlen home, making the score 4-1. The Utes would come right back, though, and recorded a two-out, RBI single of their own in the bottom of the second inning to regain a four-run lead at 5-1.
After a scoreless third inning, the Cougars finally began to make up some ground in the fourth. Hobbs Nyberg’s RBI single drove Kringlen in for his second run of the game and the Cougars got some help from Utah mistakes. An errant throw over the Utah first baseman’s head brought two more Cougars across home plate — Nyberg and Abraham Valdez — cutting the Utes’ lead to just one, 5-4.
BYU’s pitching also stepped up, preventing the Utes from scoring again until the Cougars were finally able to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning. Valdez recorded another two-out RBI for the Cougars, brining Mitch McIntyre home to tie up the score.
The tie was short lived, however, as the Utes retook the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Isaac Deveaux’s ground ball to second looked as if it was going to give the Cougars a double-play to get them out of the inning; but after tagging second, the throw to first was wide and allowed Deveraux to tag safely and to send Moeller home.
The runs kept coming in the eighth inning as well.
A Jackson Cluff sac fly brought Hsu home to bring the Cougars back to another tie with the Utes. But that was the closest the Cougars would get as Tom tripled with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the eighth to drive in two runners and give the Utes an 8-6 lead.
The Utes improve to 8-12 with the win while the loss drops the Cougars to 21-6.
“I can’t really even describe the feeling,” Tom said. “It was amazing to beat your rival.”
Both teams will hit the road this weekend for a couple of three-game series against conference opponents. The Utes will head to Oregon State to take on the No. 6 Beavers starting Friday while the Cougars will travel to San Diego beginning Thursday.
