KENNESAW, Georgia (February 18, 2017) —Junior Nate Favero  pounded two doubles and his BYU baseball teammates hit three home runs in a 13-4 victory over Kennesaw State on Saturday afternoon.

The Cougar homers came via David Clawson, Keaton Kringlen and Brock Hale en route to the their first victory of the 2017 campaign.  BYU starter Brady Corless struck out six Owls in 5.2 innings before being tagged for a solo KSU homer and was replaced by lefty Bo Burrup.

“I'm really happy for Brady,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said.  “He's worked hard on the field and in the classroom the last year so it's nice to see him have a great outing.

“DC (Clawson) did a nice job in his first college game both behind the plate and at the plate.  One of the key at bats in the game was his sacrifice fly to center in the second inning with two strikes to get us on the board.”

The Cougars, now 1-1, took the initial lead in the second inning and never trailed against the Owls, also now 1-1 the Atlanta Challenge.

Kyle Dean led off the second with a single and scored on Clawson’s sacrifice fly after Favero doubled to left-center. Daniel Schneemann singled to center to plate Favero and then scored on a wild pitch after Brennon Anderson doubled down the left field line.  Anderson then scored on another wild pitch to give BYU a 4-0 lead.

Favero got his second double of the day, this time to right center in the third, scoring Hale for what ended up as the game-winning RBI before crossing home himself on another Owl wild pitch.

In the fourth inning, Kringlen extended his current hitting streak to 13 games, singling in Anderson for a 7-1 cushion.

Clawson knocked his two-out home run to right field in the fifth inning, as Favero scored for the third time to increase BYU’s lead to 9-1.

After falling behind in the count in the sixth, Kringlen fouled off a pitch before swatting his first homer of the season to left field for a 10-1 margin.

Hale blasted his three-run homer to centerfield in the ninth inning to score Kringlen and Colton Shaver for the final 13-4 score.

“Our lineup will challenge a lot of pitching staffs this year,” Littlewood said. “Today we just wore down a great pitcher in AJ Moore and got to the Kennesaw pen early. Bo Burrup did a nice job in relief and it was nice to see Jordan Wood back out on the mound after his injury. Aaron Cross did exactly what we expected him to do with that devastating change up."

BYU plays its final game in the Atlanta Challenge on Monday at 3:45 p.m. EST at Georgia State, another Division I opponent.

No. 21 Georgia Tech starts BYU baseball’s 2017 season this this Friday in the six-team Atlanta Challenge in Georgia.

The Cougars also play afternoon games at Kennesaw State on Saturday and at Georgia State in Decatur on Monday.  Tech has also been ranked No. 29 by National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, No. 38 by Collegiate Baseball in addition to its higher ranking by Baseball America.  The Cougars received votes in preseason polls by the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball, but were not ranked.

Practice games at Michigan State and at the Caribbean island Curaçao against its national team last semester verified BYU will again be a power hitting team.  The silver lining may be how the deep Cougar pitching staff blessed with more lefties delivers during the season after practicing against its slugging teammates.

Fifth-year head Coach Mike Littlewood will start junior righthander Maverik Buffo (6-2, 3.63 in 2016) will on the mound against Georgia Tech. After Friday’s game against the Yellow Jackets, senior redshirt righthander Brady Corless (2-4, 5.51 in 2015) is expected to be BYU’s starting pitcher on Saturday, but Monday’s pitcher is yet to be announced.

"This time of year is like our second Christmas,” Littlewood said.  “Opening day is a always a special day for baseball guys and this year is no different.  We know we open up with three tough opponents, but at the same time we feel cautiously optimistic about the prospects of our upcoming season.  One thing for certain is we have a bunch of guys that will fight for each other and they will leave everything on the field every day."

All-Americans Colton Shaver and Keaton Kringlen have been spotlighted early among the bevy of talented Cougar hitters.  Shaver was projected by D1baseball.com as the WCC’s player of the year. Kringlen, a sophomore, brings an 11-game hitting streak into the season. The Cougars have been prognosticated as one of the top four teams in the West Coast Conference as they ready for defense of the league title.

Following the trip to Georgia, the Cougars have consecutive road trips to California to play San Jose State, Northern Colorado and CSU Bakersfield before opening the home season against nationally ranked UC Santa Barbara in a four-game series.

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