BASEBALL: Sean McNaughton's grand slam in the second inning proved to be the game-winning play as the BYU baseball team prevailed over UNLV 7-3 Friday night at Provo.

Although the Rebels outhit the Cougars 10-8, a superior effort by the BYU pitching tandem of Blake Torgerson and Marc Oslund allowed the victory through consistent pitching in the strike zone.

"Our pitching was fantastic and we established the strike zone early in the game," said BYU head coach Vance Law. "Torgerson did a nice job early and I thought our pitchers dominated the strike zone."

Torgerson picked up his sixth win as he pitched a solid five innings on a limited pitch count before being replaced by Oslund in the sixth. With Oslund's first save, the Cougars' 14th of the year, the BYU pitching crew broke the school record of 13 previously set in the 2000, 2002 and 2007 seasons.

Offensively, BYU got off to a good start in the second inning with a Chad Nacapoy single to score Michael Bowen. McNaughton then parked the first pitch over the left field fence that reached the street for a grand slam to give the Cougars a quick 5-0 lead. McNaughton finished the game going 1-for-4 at the plate with four RBI.

In the third inning, Andrew Law smacked a ball to center field for a double that brought in Bowen and Nacapoy for an insurmountable 7-0 lead. Nacapoy appeared to be tagged out at the plate, but it was ruled that the catcher hadn't lifted his glove from the ground and Nacapoy was able to jump over him for the score.

"It was an outstanding play by Chad and I thought it was the right call," Law said. "Our team certainly found it entertaining."

The Rebels got on the board in the fifth inning with three runs to cut the score to 7-3, but were unable to get anything going in the succeeding innings as BYU held on for the victory. Stetson Banks had an impressive evening with a 2-for-3 effort at the plate.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 26-21 on the year and 13-8 in the Mountain West Conference, while the Rebels fall to 25-26, 9-11 in league play. The teams will end the series this afternoon at 1 p.m. at Larry H. Miller Field when seven seniors will be honored in the final home game of the season.

On Thursday, Jordan Muir and Nacapoy paced the Cougars to a 15-12 victory over UNLV at Larry H. Miller Field.