College baseball: Toole up to the challenge vs. Utes

It didn't seem like a good sign for BYU ace Jeremy Toole when University of Utah outfielder Rick Cornu uncorked a nice home run on his first trip to the plate.

Major League scouts from the Mets, Yankees and Braves all turned out to witness how much damage the junior could do against the Utes. Toole grew determined to show those scouts — and Utah for that matter — that one run would be an aberration.

"After that, I challenged them," Toole said. "I went after them. I just wanted them to hit my pitch and they just got ground balls for me. Basically all I did was just go after them from that point on."

Utah couldn't do much of anything against Toole's arm after that. He struck out nine batters and gave up only three hits while pitching a complete game to lift the Cougars to a 4-1 victory in the Mountain West Conference opener for both teams at Franklin Covey Field on Thursday.

BYU (9-6) picked up its sixth straight victory and its eighth in its last 10 games. For the Utes (6-7), it is their third loss in four games.

Pitching has become a great strength for the Cougars lately. They have yielded an average of 3.5 runs per game in their last six games.

"The main thing is our pitchers have been very good," BYU coach Vance Law said. "They've been throwing strikes. They've been getting ahead of hitters. That gives a lot of confidence to our offense."

Toole has done much to boost the overall performance of the pitching staff.

He is now 3-0 this season and has struck out 24 batters, while giving up only 20 hits and 11 earned runs in nearly 28 innings pitched.

Law said Toole is multi-dimensional enough to cause most defenses problems.

"The thing that's tough about him is he throws his breaking ball for a strike too," Law said. "It's a very good curve ball along with his good fastball. When you have two pitches working for you, it gives you an opportunity to be a dominant guy."

Utah seized a quick 1-0 first-inning lead on Cornu's homer over the right field wall.

But the Ute advantage turned out to be temporary after the BYU bats warmed up a little bit in the second inning.

The Cougars went ahead 2-1 when Brandon Relf doubled to centerfield, driving in runners Sean McNaughton and Jonathan Cluff.