April 8, 2008

Provo, UT (UWIRE) -- BYU crushed UNLV 21-12 in the final game of a three-game series to claim the series against the Rebels. The Cougars won two out of three and improved to 14-17 overall with the win and 5-4 in Mountain West Conference play.

BYU opened the series in dramatic fashion, beating UNLV 10-7 in extra innings. The Cougars came into the series on a six-game losing streak, but a heroic three-run home run by J.T. Musso snapped the skid.

The Cougars and the Rebels battled back and forth in the first game. BYU trailed by four-runs going into the eighth but rallied to tie the game at seven behind of a three-run double by Byrce Ayoso.

Musso came up big in the 10th frame when he hit his three-run bomb over the leftfield fence. The Cougars never looked back and took the series opener.

"It was huge," Musso said concerning his homer. "I looked for my pitch, a fastball up. Everything we do builds up to conference play and tonight's victory epitomizes what we do. The way Jordan [Muir] threw tonight reminded me of his freshman year, he just dominated."

The Cougars dropped the second game in nearly identical fashion as they won the first. BYU got off to a hot start as Dan Vargas and Sean McNaughton both hit home runs in the first inning. The Cougars pulled away even more as they added five runs in the third inning, taking a 7-3 lead into the eighth inning.

However, UNLV took advantage of sloppy field play by the Cougars and scored six runs in the eighth inning to seal the victory.

"The tables were turned tonight," BYU coach Vance Law said after the game. "They scored a bunch of runs with two outs. We kicked the ball and haven't executed pitches out of the bullpen. No one feels worse than our pitchers. Those insurance runs in the eighth inning were huge for us, but they came to fight in the eighth. This was a game we let slip away."

Several Cougars had four hits in the game, including Brandon Relf, who went 4-for-4 with a home run and four RBI.

BYU put up six runs in the sixth inning and eight runs in the seventh to seal the victory. Steve Parker hit a three-run homer in the sixth to give BYU an 11-6 advantage.

"I knew I got it right off the bat," Parker said. "We battled back each inning and tried to pick away at their lead."

UNLV was forced to use four pitchers to get out of the seventh inning. The high-scoring inning included a three-run bomb by McNaughton, a two-run blast by Vargas and doubles from Musso, Kent Walton, and Parker.

BYU will return to Provo to host the University of Utah on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

(C) 2008 The Daily Universe via UWIRE