PROVO -- Jeff Mousser threw 112 pitches and struck out 10 Utes Thursday night to lead BYU to a 5-2 victory over the University of Utah.

Mousser scattered eight hits and had a 5-0 lead until Brit Pannier knocked a two-run homer to chase the Cougar hurler from the game in the ninth with one out. Mousser gave many of the 2,251 fans plenty to cheer about as the second-largest crowd in history at Larry H. Miller Field enjoyed the evening.

"Jeff changed speeds well and Lars (Birkeland) called a good game," said BYU Coach Vance Law, whose Cougars improve to 12-16-1 overall and strengthen their first-place standing to 6-3 in the Mountain West Conference.

"This is the best I've felt all year," said Mousser, a sophomore who improves to 5-2 and is number one in the MWC with a 2.65 earned run average. "I had good stuff tonight and it worked out well. I had a good, sharp breaking ball and it helped keep them off balance. That's the key so Utah won't hurt you so bad."

Mousser's teammates managed only eight hits, but they came at timely moments as the Cougars scored runs off sacrifice flies in the first and fourth innings.

"Jensen's (Dave) sacrifice was big for us," said Law of the sophomore's poke to right field in the first inning. Jensen's belt with one out scored Doug Jackson who had walked as the lead-off batter. Jackson advanced to third off Cameron Coughlan's single. Coughlan was thrown out trying to extend that right field single to a double.

With Jackson at third, BYU stayed alive as Matt Carson got hit by a pitch, then avoided a pickoff by escaping a run-down and returned to first. Then Jensen's blow scored Jackson to give BYU a 1-0 lead. Carson scored on the next play when Rob Itri singled down the leftfield line.

In the fourth inning freshman Ryan Chambers alertly got on base on a wild pitch after striking out. He then raced to third on Birkeland's one-out single and scored on Ranger Wien's sac-fly to make the score 4-0.

Utah centerfielder Matt Ciaramella made a great catch off Carson's drive to the warning track in the eighth.

Mousser escaped an eighth-inning bases-loaded jam when he got Donnie Saba to line out at third to Itri.

The Utes, now 19-15 overall and 4-6 in the league, play again at Larry H. Miller Field on Friday at 7 p.m. and again on Saturday at 8 p.m. For a live webcast of the games, click on the links in the "Utah Series Begins" story.

University of Utah at Brigham Young Univ.
               Apr 04, 2002 at Provo, Utah (Larry H Miller Field)
University of Utah 2 (19-15,4-6 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
CIARAMELLA, Matt cf......  4  0  1  0   0  2  3  0   1
SABA, Donnie lf..........  4  0  1  0   0  2  1  0   3
CASTLETON,Adam 2b........  4  0  1  0   0  3  3  7   0
WEESE, Nate 1b...........  3  1  0  0   1  1 10  1   0
PANNIER, Brit rf.........  4  1  2  2   0  0  2  1   0
WESTFALL, Mike 3b........  4  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
BASHAM, Mike dh..........  4  0  1  0   0  2  0  0   0
HAWES, Donald c..........  3  0  0  0   0  1  3  0   1
BALDWIN, Brett ss........  3  0  2  0   0  0  1  3   0
WYLIE, Jason p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
 OVERHOLT, Sean p........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 33  2  8  2   1 11 24 13   5
Brigham Young Univ. 5 (12-16-1,6-3 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug lf.........  4  1  1  1   1  0  0  0   1
COUGHLAN, Cameron 2b.....  4  0  2  0   0  1  2  2   1
CARSON, Matt rf..........  2  1  0  0   1  1  0  0   0
JENSEN, Dave 1b..........  3  0  0  1   0  0  6  0   3
ITRI, Rob 3b.............  4  0  1  1   0  1  3  1   0
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake dh....  3  0  0  0   1  0  0  0   1
CHAMBERS, Ryan cf........  4  1  1  0   0  1  5  0   0
BIRKELAND, Lars c........  3  2  3  0   1  0  9  4   0
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  2  0  0  1   1  0  2  0   2
MOUSSER, Jeff p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 DABO, Tyler p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 29  5  8  4   5  4 27  7   8
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
University of Utah.. 000 000 002 -  2  8  2
Brigham Young Univ.. 210 200 00X -  5  8  1
-------------------------------------------
E - CASTLETON; WEESE; ITRI. DP - Utes 2. LOB - Utes 5; BYU Cougars 8. 2B -
ITRI; CHAMBERS. HR - PANNIER(4). HBP - CARSON M.. SF - JENSEN; WIENS. SB -
COUGHLAN; CARSON M.. CS - SABA; CASTLETON.
University of Utah     IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
WYLIE, Jason........  7.1  8  5  4  5  4 27 35
OVERHOLT, Sean......  0.2  0  0  0  0  0  2  2
Brigham Young Univ.    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
MOUSSER, Jeff.......  8.1  8  2  2  1 10 31 32
DABO, Tyler.........  0.2  0  0  0  0  1  2  2
Win - MOUSSER (5-2).  Loss - WYLIE (4-5).  Save - None.
WP - WYLIE 2. HBP - by WYLIE (CARSON M.).
Umpires - HP: Ray Belfiore  1B: John Cortez  3B: Terry Balser
Start: 7:03   Time: 2:29   Attendance: 2251
Game notes:
Game one of three
2,251 is second largest home crowd behind 3,120 vs. UNLV on 5/11/01

Because of rain and snow, Tuesday's BYU-Notre Dame baseball game has been canceled.

The Fighting Irish claimed a 1-0 victory on Monday, the first time BYU has been shutout since dropping a pair of games in 1997 at Cal-Fullerton.

The Cougars, now 11-16-1 overall and 5-3 in the Mountain West Conference, now turn their sites toward hosting Utah in a three-game series which begins Thursday evening.

Scheduled to start the 7 p.m. game on Thursday evening is Jeff Mousser (4-2, 2.80). Ryan Adams 2-3, 6.28) is the probable starter for Friday's 7 p.m. game at Larry H. Miller Field. And Paul Jacinto (2-1, 6.97) is scheduled to start in Saturday's game which has been moved to 8 p.m. because of General Conference.

"This is always a great series because we have to fight Utah tooth and nail," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "We need to play well. It's time we start to separate ourselves from the pack. We are still in the thick of things because of the parity in our league."

BYU is in a first-place tie with San Diego State thanks to Utah taking two of three last weekend from the Aztecs. Since BYU lost a pair to SDSU, it has changed its lineup. Freshman Ryan Chambers is now starting in centerfield, while all-league Doug Jackson is now in left. Moving from left field to second base is Cameron Coughlan and Rob Itri has moved from second to third base.

Fans who are not able to attend the game in person can now read a live webcast of the BYU-Utah games by logging in at Game One, Game Two and Game Three.