Utah Valley baseball

BASEBALL: Utah Valley University jumped out early on BYU Monday night and Justin Smith silenced Cougar bats en route to a 7-2 victory.

Bill Burgess hit his third grand slam of the year in the first inning on an 0-2 count as UVU took a 5-0 lead with no outs, forcing Nathan Bunch off the mound.

"Walks and hanging sliders don't get it done, especially on 0-2 counts," said BYU coach Vance Law.

The Cougars skipper then gave the ball to Marc Oslund on the hill and it was three-up, three down courtesy of a caught stealing attempt and a pair of swinging strikeouts.

A one-out solo homer by Jake Rickenbach in the second increased the Wolverines' margin to 6-0. Aside from that homer, Oslund was effective, striking out seven in five innings, waiting for the Cougar bats to ignite.

"Our hitters weren't ready to play and Justin Smith is a decent pitcher," said Law.

BYU got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning when Vance Law got hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Stetson Banks, making the score 6-1.

Leading off the seventh, Sean McNaughton stroked an 0-2 pitch over the fence in left-centerfield to close the margin, 6-2.

With no outs and bases loaded, UVU got a break when Michael Bowen's sharply-hit grounder to third resulted in a 5U2 double play in the eighth. McNaughton's bunt single loaded the bases again as pinch-hitter Chad Nacapoy came to the plate for the Cougars, but he flew out to end the sixth non-scoring inning.

The Cougars fall to 24-17, while UVU improves to 13-28. Next up for BYU is a three-game series starting Thursday at No. 15 TCU, who overtook the Cougars and New Mexico for first place in the Mountain West Conference over the weekend.