BYU baseball: Cougars rally to sweep Air Force

PROVO — With a 10-5 victory over Air Force Saturday afternoon, BYU earned a three-game sweep of the Falcons and won its fifth consecutive game.

The Cougars are playing their best baseball of the season and it's a good thing, too.

That's because next up is the defending national champions. BYU hosts Oregon State for a two-game series starting Monday (3 p.m.) at Larry H. Miller Field.

"I hope our fans will come out and support us," said Cougar coach Vance Law. "They'll be in for a treat and they'll see good baseball. Hopefully we'll come out and play well. I don't anticipate our guys being intimidated. It's not very often we have the chance to play the defending national champions."

BYU players are looking forward to taking on the Beavers, a Pac-10 power.

"We feel like we can compete with anyone," said relief pitcher Blake Torgerson. Winning five straight, including two over Kansas State earlier in the week, "builds some confidence for our hitters and our pitchers."

Against Air Force on Saturday, BYU held a seemingly comfortable 4-0 lead after shortstop Brandon Relf belted a deep fly ball that smacked the wall in left field. Falcons' left fielder Daniel Walker crashed into the wall and lay on the warning track while Relf circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. Air Force players and trainers ran out to attend to Walker, who eventually got on his feet and stayed in the game.

The Falcons exploded for five runs in the sixth, highlighted by Chay Derbigny's two-run single and Adison Gentry's two-run double, to take a 5-4 advantage.

In the BYU dugout, not much was said, or needed to be said, after losing the lead.

"Stuff like that happens," Law said. "(Air Force) is a better team than they're given credit for. We're playing with a great deal of confidence right now."

Torgerson, who had yielded Gentry's two-run double, settled down and didn't allow any more hits in three innings of work in relief of starter Sean Amerson.

"I wanted to give our guys a chance to make plays," Torgerson said. And they did.

The Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Sean McNaughton. Then, in the seventh inning, BYU plated five runs on an RBI single by Kasey Ko, a sacrifice fly by J.T. Musso, an RBI single by Andrew Law, and a two-run single by McNaughton to make it 10-5. Brandon Michon replaced Torgerson and pitched a perfect ninth to seal the victory.

The Cougars improved to 12-10 overall and 3-3 in the Mountain West Conference while the Falcons fell to 7-12 and 0-3.

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