PROVO, Utah –No. 21 UC Irvine avoided a sweep with an 8-3 victory Saturday over BYU at Larry H. Miller Field.

The nation’s No. 4 pitcher Andrew Morales (5-0) and his relief, held the BYU bats in check in front of 1,146 fans. The Cougars (9-7) recorded six hits on the afternoon and the Anteaters (12-4) peppered the home team with 11 hits.

“I felt like we were playing catch up the whole game,” BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said. “We came out a bit complacent, I didn’t like that. Really good teams don’t come out with that mentality.”

UCI jumped out to an early lead in the opening frame when Connor Spencer lined a double to right-center to score Dominique Taylor from first. Ronnie Shaeffer singled to left to score Spencer and gave the Anteaters a 2-0 advantage.

Center-fielder Jaycob Brugman ripped a ball over the right fielder’s head for a stand-up double in the bottom of the second for BYU.  Brock Whitney moved him one step closer to home on a grounder to second and Kelton Caldwell sent him home on a sacrifice fly to deep right to bring the Cougars within a run at 2-1.

The Anteaters capitalized on a pair of Cougar errors and a two-run homerun by Shaeffer to extend the lead, 6-1 in the third inning.

With UCI threatening in the fifth, freshman Keaton Cenatiempo saw his fourth action of the season in relief of Mark Anderson and got out of a bases-loaded jam by getting Ryan Cooper to pop up to Whitney to end the inning.

“We had a shaky start but we turned it on there in the last couple of innings,” Cenatiempo said. “This was the biggest crowd I’ve pitched in front of and it boosted me a lot. I hope I gave coach (Littlewood) a good impression.”

In the sixth and seventh innings, the Anteaters added one run in each to increase their lead to 8-1.

Morales was relieved by Evan Brock after the Cougars juiced the bases in the bottom of the seventh. Pinch-hitter Bret Lopez hit a sac-fly to right to plate Brugman from third and bring the score to 8-2.

“We didn’t quit,” Littlewood said. “We chased Morales and tried to get to their bullpen. He bent a little bit, but he didn’t break.”

Jacob Hannemann recorded his second hit of the game on a single to left and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Brennon Anderson snuck a single under the shortstop’s glove to advance Hannemann to third. Adam Law reached on a fielder’s choice to score Hannemann and narrow the margin to 8-3.

In the ninth, back-up catcher Collin Braithwaite recorded his first career hit in a stand-up triple to the right-center wall.

“It was another confidence builder for us,” Littlewood said. “I consider these guys a great team. I want to tip my hat to Brian Hill; he’s done a great job of getting the field ready for us to play this weekend.”

The Cougars travel to open the conference season next week for a three-game series against San Diego starting Thursday, March 14 at 6 p.m. PDT. Game two will be Friday night at 6 p.m. PDT and game three will be Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT. All three games will be broadcast locally over KOVO 960 AM and on BYU Radio.

No. 21 UC Irvine plays a three-game series in Provo this week to become BYU baseball’s official home opener.

The Cougars (7-6) host UC Irvine (10-2) after having last week’s scheduled home opener moved to St. George because of playing conditions at Larry H. Miller Field.

“UC Irvine is a great challenge for us because they are a solid baseball team that has beat up some good teams thus far,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said. “We want to set a precedent to win home series, so we need to go about our game plan, throw strikes, get timely hitting and continue not beating ourselves.”

Junior co-captain Desmond Poulson (2-0, 1.23 earned run average) is scheduled to start for BYU on the mound in Thursday’s game, which starts at 3 p.m. MST.  On Friday, also at 3 p.m., junior Adam Miller (0-3, 4.66) will be BYU’s starter.  And on Saturday at noon, sophomore Jeff Barker (2-1, 1.89) is scheduled to start for the Cougars.

The Anteaters’ scheduled pitcher for game three on Saturday is the nation’s leading pitcher Andrew Morales who brings a 4-0 record and a 2.60 ERA into the afternoon contest.

The Anteaters bring the nation’s No. 3 batting average of .337 and No. 3 fielding percentage of .991 into the series. The Cougars are No. 2 in the nation in double plays turned.

All three games will be broadcast live locally over KOVO Radio 960 AM.