STOCKTON, California--No. 27 Loyola Marymount outfielder Niko Decolati accounted all of his team’s runs Thursday in a 3-2 win over BYU baseball in the opening round of the league tournament.

The loss puts the Cougars, now 33-19, in survival mode of the West Coast Conference Tournament with a noon PDT contest on Friday against Saint Mary’s College (37-19), who was defeated earlier Thursday, 11-3, by Gonzaga.

Starter Brady Corless gave BYU a fighting chance in Thursday’s opener, striking out eight Lions in seven innings. While Corless (6-1) was on his game, but got his first loss of the season, the Lions rode the bat of Decolati as BYU could rustle up only three hits on the evening.

“We could tell early that he (Brenton Arriaga) had his best stuff,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We made adjustments. We just couldn't get that key hit. The two or three balls we did hit hard were right at them.”

LMU took advantage of a Phil Caulfield triple, setting up Decolati’s two-run homer, both wind-aided, in the third inning. Decolati got the game-winning RBI with a single set up by an errant BYU throw earlier in the fifth inning.

The Cougars loaded the bases in the sixth inning, but harvested only one run to pull within a 3-2 margin. That run came when Keaton Kringlen drew the first of four consecutive walks in the frame, the latter pair from reliever Codie Paiva. Paiva earned his fifth save of the season, providing starter Brenton Arriaga with his seventh win after the Cougars popped twice stranding the loaded bases.

BYU got its first run and first two hits of the game in the fourth when leadoff batter Daniel Schneemann drew a walk, advanced in Tanner Chauncey’s single, then later scored on Brock Hale’s single.

In the fifth inning, the game took a twist when LMU coach Jason Gill was ejected from the game after a mound visit following a leadoff walk by Nate Favero with a 2-1 lead.

With no outs in the fifth, Favero was in a predicament when Kyle Dean’s high pop fly wiggled in the wind and landed inches fair beyond the reach of the Lion first baseman. The delay caused Favero to be tardy at second and Dean was safe with a single, but the Cougars ended scoreless in the frame.

BYU escaped a jam in the eighth when reliever Mason Marshall loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batter, then got help from his teammates. Schneemann fired home for the first out of the eighth, then started the inning-ending double play initiated by him at shortstop.

“I'm getting tired of losing this first game of the tournament,” Littlewood said. “If they (BYU players) come out and don't believe they can win tomorrow, they're done. I think they understand it, but we've got to turn things around in 12 hours. Hayden Rogers (7-2, 3.87) will start for us tomorrow (Friday vs. Saint Mary’s). He's been our second-best guy and we'll throw him out there and hope he can do what Brady (Corless) did.”

LMU (38-16) advances to play Gonzaga (29-17) at 3:30 p.m. PDT.  The winner of the BYU-Saint Mary’s game will play the loser of the LMU-Gonzaga game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. PDT.

No. 27 Loyola Marymount is BYU baseball’s foe in Thursday’s opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament at Stockton, California.

BYU (33-18) won a second-consecutive tri-championship title, tying with LMU and Gonzaga with 20-7 league marks. The trio is joined by Saint Mary’s College in this week’s WCC tourney, with the winner getting the automatic berth for next week’s NCAA Tournament.

"We obviously didn't finish the regular season the way we wanted, but we've had a great season up to this point and look to get back to playing Cougar baseball this week,” BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said.

Three-straight losses at Gonzaga knocked the Cougars out of the national rankings as they fell short of winning one game to claim the outright WCC regular-season crown.

The starting pitcher for third-seeded BYU against LMU (No. 2 seed) has yet to be named as Littlewood could choose from any of this normal three-man rotation: Maverik Buffo (6-6, 6.26), Brady Corless (6-0, 5.13) or Hayden Rogers (7-2, 3.87).

Buffo was the winning pitcher in March at LMU, Corless didn’t pitch in the series and Rogers pitched well in the third contest where the Lions’ Cory Abbott threw a perfect game.

The winner of Thursday’s game advances to play on Friday against the winner of No. 1 seed Gonzaga and No. 4 seed SMC at 3:30 p.m. PDT. The loser of Thursday’s game plays on Friday at noon PDT in the double-elimination tournament. Every game of the tournament will all be streamed live and available free of charge on TheW.tv, powered by Campus Insiders. Steve Quis (play-by-play), Keith Ramsey (analyst) and Meghan von Behren (on-field reporting) will call all the action live from Banner Island Ballpark.

BYU had five players named honorable mention to the All-WCC Academic team:  Bo Burrup, Nate Favero, Brock Hale, Kendall Motes and Jordan Wood.  Hale  is ranked No. 16 in the NCAA for runs per game at 1.12 and No. 17 in slugging percentage at .681.

For more detailed information, see multi-page BYU PDF below and WCC bracket