By Joey Barrett
The BYU Cougars came into UFCU-Disch Falk Field to take the series over the Texas Longhorns in large part due to a big weekend at the plate by the Cougars’ Collin Reuter. Here is how the series went down.
Game 1 (Thursday): Cougars 7 Longhorns 5
The Cougars got the best of the Longhorns on Thursday as they rode a couple early rallies en route to a 7-5 victory.
BYU was very consistent in the first five innings, scoring two in the first on a single by Reuter and a sac fly by Kuhio Aloy, one in the second on a Chipper Beck solo homer, one in the third on a solo shot by Reuter, and two in the fifth on a two-run single by Keoni Painter to lead 6-0.
The Longhorns then responded in the bottom of the fifth with a pair runs driven in on singles by Dee Kennedy and Peyton Powell to cut the BYU lead to 6-2 after five innings. After the Cougars scored a run in the top of the sixth on a double by Cooper Vest, Texas then cut into the lead even more in the bottom half with a solo home run by Jack O’Dowd and a two-run double by Kennedy to cut the deficit to 7-5.
BYU would threaten to add on to their lead in both the seventh and eighth innings but ended up standing the bases loaded in both innings without scoring any runs. The Longhorns would then stage one last rally in the ninth by putting on the potential tying run on base before ending the game on a groundout and the Cougars held on to take the series opener.
BYU was led in the hit column by Vest who had four hits on the night while Reuter had three. Luke Anderson and Bryker Hurdsman also each had two hits for the Cougars. For the Longhorns, Kennedy and Max Belyeu had three hits apiece.
Ben Hansen started, and got the win, for the Cougars after striking out five batters in 5.1 innings while Stone Cushing got the save. Lebarron Johnson got the start for Texas and went six innings with four strikeouts.
Game 2 (Friday): Longhorns 4 Cougars 3
For the third straight week, the Longhorns took the second game of the series after losing the first with a 4-3 win on Friday after thanks to the efforts on the mound by starter Ace Whitehead and closer Gage Boehm.
Jalin Flores gave Texas an early lead in the first with a solo shot to left field. BYU would later tie things up in the third on a home run by Vest, but the Longhorns would respond in the bottom of the inning with a single by Belyeu that drove in Powell and an infield single that brought in Will Gasparino to make it 3-1 Texas.
In the fourth, Jones hit a solo homer to reduce the BYU deficit to one. The Longhorns would then get that run back in fifth on a sac fly by Gasparino that drove in Flores. BYU would then return the favor in the sixth on a double by Painter that scored Aloy but would not have another batter reach base as Boehm came in and threw 3.2 perfect innings in relief to secure the series-tying victory for Texas.
Flores and Gasparino had two hits apiece for the Longhorns while Powell, Jared Thomas, and Porter Brown each logged a hit. BYU had five hits on the night with Reuter and Aloy recording hits along with the aforementioned RBI hits.
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Whitehead kept his hot streak going since moving into the rotation as he threw 5.1 innings to get the win for Texas. Bryce Robison started for the Cougars and went four innings.
Game 3 (Saturday): Cougars 7 Longhorns 5
On Saturday, the Cougars ended the series in similar fashion to how they began it as they scored early and never looked back to secure the series with a 7-5 victory over the Longhorns.
Reuter would start the scoring for BYU in the first inning with the first of three home runs he’d hit on the day, a two-run shot, to give the Cougars the 2-0 lead. BYU would then make it 4-0 in the second after Beck singled in Robinson and a sac fly by Anderson scored Beck. The Longhorns would get on the board in the bottom half on a solo homer by Flores, his 13th of the year, to make it a 4-1 ballgame. BYU would then respond in the third with Reuter’s two-run shot to increase their lead to 6-1.
After Texas drove in a run in the fourth on a sac fly by Thomas, Reuter would then hit his third home run of the game in the fifth to return the Cougar lead back to five. The Longhorns would then stage rallies in the fifth (where Brown hit a solo homer), sixth, and seventh (where Galvan had a two-run double) to cut their deficit to 7-5.
The scoring would then end from there as Mason Olson and Cushing would throw shutout innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to solidify the win for BYU and hand Texas their first conference series loss of the season.
The Cougars had nine hits on the afternoon with Reuter being the sole batter having multiple hits with three. Flores had three hits for the Longhorns while Belyeu had two.
Hayden Coon got the start for BYU while Boston Mabeus recorded the win for the Cougars. The series win improves BYU’s overall record to 13-15 and 6-9 in Big 12 play while Texas drops to 19-13 overall and 7-5 in conference play.
What’s Next?
The Longhorns will play a home-and-home set with the Texas State Wildcats on Tuesday (in San Marcos) and Wednesday (in Austin) before heading to the Bayou City for a series with the Houston Cougars. BYU heads back to the Beehive State for a midweek clash with their in-state rivals the Utah Utes before beginning a home series on Thursday night with the Baylor Bears.
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