STANFORD, California (June 1, 2017)—No. 17 Cal State Fullerton rode the arm of All-American pitcher Connor Seabold and cruised to a 13-2 victory over No. 26 BYU baseball in the NCAA regional on Thursday.

A sluggish start  by No. 26 BYU at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond, fueled by two Cougar errors gave the Titans (35-21) an early 3-0 first inning lead. That margin increased to 6-0 when Hunter Cullen belted a two-run homer from the first offerings of Jordan Wood who had just replaced starter Brady Corless in the third.

“We got outhit, outpitched and outcoached this afternoon,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “When you get to this point in a season you can't afford to not play your best and today we played less than our best.

“Seabold was outstanding today and just didn't give us many pitches to hit. He was everything the scouting reports said he was and we just couldn't crack him. We will come back tomorrow (Friday) and give it everything we've got.”

Seabold (11-4) fanned a BYU batter in each of his first five innings, putting the Cougars down in order except for the third and fifth frames. The junior right-hander left the game after seven innings with eight strikeouts with no walks and received plenty of offensive support.

Midway through the fourth inning, every Titan batter recorded at least one hit. Dillon Persinger’s third-consecutive single found him hung up between first and second with centerfielder Keaton Kringlen’s cutoff throw complete to Brennon Anderson who fired to Colton Shaver to erase the Titan scrambling back to the bag. However, CSF scored a run on the play and Wood was replaced by lefty Bo Burrup.

The only offense BYU could hang its hat on was a third-inning single by Nate Favero until he returned to bat with Brock Hale and David Clawson on base. Favero drove Hale home with his double in the fifth.

That momentum was short-lived as Burrup surrendered two singles, aided by a balk which enabled the Titan duo to score on Chris Prescott’s single. Prescott tried to steal second with a 9-1 lead, but overslid second and was pegged out by the Bronson Larsen to Daniel Schneemann combo.

BYU got another pair of runners aboard in the sixth with two-out singles by Kringlen and Hale, but the tandem was stranded. Keaton Cenatiempo then relieved Burrup to start the sixth.

Just as Seabold was reestablishing his command over BYU with a leadoff strikeout in the seventh, BYU’s Shaver swatted a homer, his 12th, over the left field fence for a 9-2 score.

The Cougars (37-20) are relegated to the elimination round game on Friday at 1 p.m. PDT against Sacramento State, who lost to No. 8 Stanford 10-0, on Thursday evening.

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PROVO, Utah—Stanford, California, is the route chosen for No. 26 BYU baseball as it starts on the Road to Omaha at the NCAA Regional hosted by Stanford University on Thursday.

The Cougars, 37-19, will open the tournament at 1 p.m. PDT as the No. 3 seed facing No. 2-seed Cal State Fullerton (34-21) out of the Big West Conference.  The other team facing the top-seeded Cardinal (40-14) in the Stanford Regional is Western Athletic Conference Champion Sacramento State (32-27). Stanford hosts the regional as the tournament's No. 8 overall seed and plays the Hornets at 6 p.m. PDT.  All games can be seen worldwide on ESPN3.com.

BYU's opening game opponent enters the matchup ranked No. 17 in the latest national rankings, while the Cardinal is ranked No. 8 in the nation. The games at the Stanford Regional will be played at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.

The winner of the BYU-Cal-State Fullerton game advances to play the winner of Stanford-Sacramento State on Friday, while the other two teams play later on Friday in the double-elimination tournament. All games in the Stanford Regional will be played at either 1 or 6 p.m. PDT and can be seen worldwide on ESPN3.com.

The Cougars, regular-season tri-champions in the West Coast Conference, won the WCC Tournament last weekend in Stockton, California, on their way to equaling the program's 10th-best season in school history with 37 victories. Riding a four-game winning streak coming off the WCC Tournament, BYU earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Road to Omaha with dominating back-to-back 10-3, 16-3 wins on Saturday in Stockton over fellow tri-champion Gonzaga.

“It's really gratifying for me to see the fruits of our players' labors come to fruition," BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. "We've hit good pitching all year long, and I feel like our mentality is really good right now. Cal-State Fullerton is a very well coached, talented and confident team. It's going to be a battle."

This is BYU’s 12th selection to an NCAA Regional since 1979, the first year that format was adopted. BYU has made two appearances in the College World Series in 1968 and 1971. In 1958 and 1961 the Cougars declined going to the CWS because of issues with Sunday play. If BYU is playing in Game 7 at the Stanford Regional,  that contest will be played on Monday, June 5 at 1 p.m. PDT

The Cougars are scheduled to leave Tuesday.

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