BYU baseball: Torgerson goes distance in Cougar victory

PROVO — It looked like it was going to be a long night, figuratively, for BYU pitcher Blake Torgerson, who surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning against Mountain West Conference-leader New Mexico.

As it turned out, Torgerson experienced a long night in a very literal way. The sophomore righthander tossed a complete-game victory — throwing 121 pitches along the way — as the Cougars rallied for a 13-5 win over the Lobos Friday night at Miller Park.

Following that dismal first-inning performance, few, including Torgerson himself, would have guessed he would have survived another inning, let alone go the distance.

"I didn't have any clue that this would happen," said Torgerson, whose mother traveled from California to attend the game. What made Torgerson's performance even more impressive was he was nursing a sore arm. "Blake gutted it up," said BYU coach Vance Law.

"He's always going to compete."

Still, when the Cougars came up to bat in their half of the fourth inning, they trailed, 5-0. It appeared the Lobos were waltzing away with their second straight victory in this three-game series.

But the Cougars' bats quickly changed that. By the time the frame came to a close, BYU had erupted for 10 runs to take its first lead of the game. They say a double-play is a pitcher's best friend. As far as Torgerson is concerned, a 10-run inning by his teammates is even better.

"It was awesome," Torgerson said of the 10-run blitzkrieg. "We have it in us to do that every night."

Staked to a lead, Torgerson was able to get even more comfortable. "I'm sure his arm started to feel better after that," Law said with a smile.

BYU's 10-run explosion in the fourth was highlighted by Brandon Relf's three-run home run over the left field wall that gave the Cougars their first lead of the contest, 6-5. Relf's homer was just the fifth of the season for BYU at home this season. The Cougars slugged 18 homers a year ago at Miller Park.

Kent Walton added to BYU's lead with a two-run double, which was followed by Kasey Ko's RBI single and Steve Parker's RBI triple. When the dust had settled, BYU had a 10-5 advantage. It marked the Cougars' highest-scoring inning of the season. Their previous best was eight against UNLV.

Ko and Sean McNaughton each collected four hits for BYU, while Kent Walton added three.

With the win, BYU improved to 7-10 in the MWC and 19-27 overall. New Mexico dropped to 12-5 in league play and 28-20 overall.

The Cougars and Lobos close out their three-game series today at 1.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com