PROVO, Utah – Outfielders Jacob Hannemann and Jaycob Brugman combined for three hits and five RBI to lead BYU to a 9-3 victory over Utah Tuesday night at Larry H. Miller Field.  

BYU (20-15) evened up its four-game Deseret First Duel series with Utah (16-20) at one game apiece.

“It’s always nice to beat Utah, and fortunately we got them on a good night,” BYU head coach Mike Littlewood said. “To our guys’ credit, we came ready to play and were aggressive at the plate, swinging our bats well. To a guy, everyone did their job.”

Video Highlights and Interviews

Freshman reliever Keaton Cenatiempo (2-2) pitched three hitless innings with three strikeouts to earn the win.

“Keaton (Cenatiempo) to come in that situation, it’s a little bit different then he’s been in,” Littlewood said.  “We called on him to be ready to go and he was and I think he deserves the win.”

The Cougars pre-designated their pitchers for the game with Desmond Poulson pitching the first inning, Jeff Barker pitching the second and Adam Miller pitching the third and fourth innings.

The pitching staff held the Ute batters in check, allowing only seven hits for the game and striking out seven. BYU saw the ball well all game, recording 14 hits with five players having a multi-hit game.  

Jacob Hannemann smashed the first pitch of the game over the right field wall for a lead-off home run to give BYU an early 1-0 lead. The ball tailed over the foul pole but was ruled fair.

“I saw it, reacted and swung at the fastball,” Hannemann said of his home run. “It was the same exact pitch when I hit my double. It was a great win for us preparing for Gonzaga this weekend.”

Later in that inning, Trace Hansen and Adam Law drew walks to put runners on first and second base. A wild pitch moved Hansen to third and Law to second. Brock Whitney ripped a liner that the Ute shortstop couldn’t handle to score Hansen and increase the lead, 2-0.

In the second inning, Dakota Hernandez singled up the middle. Hayden Nielsen laced a single up the middle, moving Hernandez into scoring position at third. Hannemann stroked a double to the corner in right field, plating Hernandez and moving Nielsen to third. Law drew his second walk of the game to load the bases. Brugman sent the first pitch he saw down the right field line for a bases-clearing double to give BYU a 6-0 lead.

Utah scored a run in the top of the fourth, bringing the score to 6-1.

Law drew his third walk of the game to start off the seventh frame. Whitney doubled to the deepest part of the field, hitting the wall in center, and moving Law to third. Kelton Caldwell produced a sac fly into left field to plate Law, and push the lead to 7-1.

The next Cougar batter, Bret Lopez hit a lazy fly ball for a double amidst confused Utes into shallow right field, scoring Whitney. Hernandez recorded his second single up the middle, pushing Lopez across and increasing the Cougar lead, 9-1.

Utah responded with two runs in the top of the eighth for the final runs of the game, 9-3.

“I think our whole goal from the get-go was to be one of the top four teams in the conference, Littlewood said about the next couple of weeks. “That was really our only team goal to get to the conference tournament and see what happens and right now we have an opportunity to do that. We control our own destiny, it sounds cliché but that’s the truth. We have a couple tough road trips and Gonzaga is playing well. These next three games are the games we’re really concerned about. I feel good about where we are as a team and our confidence just going up there and competing.”

BYU returns to conference action with a three-game series at league-leading Gonzaga beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. PDT. Game two is Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday game three begins at 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast live on KOVO 960 AM.

A rematch in the Deseret Duel Tuesday against Utah in Provo precedes BYU baseball’s return to league action this week at Gonzaga.

The Cougars, 19-15 overall and 7-5 in the West Coast Conference, host Utah (16-19) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Desmond Poulson (5-0, 2.14) will start for one inning in the rematch against Utah. The rotation is set for the three-game series at first-place Gonzaga (26-11-1 and 13-5 in the WCC). Poulson, Jeff Barker (3-2, 3.93) and Adam Miller (2-6, 5.98) are scheduled to throw in that order starting Thursday at Spokane, Wash.

But first up is Utah who beat the Cougars 5-4 in 10 innings last month in Salt Lake City.  The Deseret Duel baseball points are still up for grabs in the four-game series.  BYU has won four of the five Deseret Duel baseball portions, with the Utes winning in 2011 on run differential.

“The next series we play is going to be one of the toughest series we play all year,” BYU coach Mike Littlewood said.  “We need to go up there and find a way to sneak a game or two from Gonzaga. The goal would be to be above .500 when we come back home, that would be huge for us.”

The Cougars have been idle from competition for over a week due to final exams. The time off has been beneficial for the return of catcher Dakota Hernandez who broke his thumb 16 games into the season after starting nine of those contests.  Hernandez’ return comes just in time as his replacement Jarrett Jarvis, who started the past 18 games, will be sidelined from a broken fibula in a collision successfully defending the plate in BYU’s last action.

The Utah and Gonzaga games will be broadcast live locally on KOVO Radio 960 AM, on Satellite Radio Sirius 143 and streamed on the Internet.

The next BYU home game after the Utah tilt is on May 9 after the Cougars play the Utes in Salt Lake City on May 7. The Cougars play in Orem at Utah Valley University on April 30.