Baseball to host Saint Mary's in three-game series

PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball is at Miller Park Thursday through Saturday for a WCC three-game series with Saint Mary’s.

The Cougars are coming off an 8-5 win over No. 26 Arizona State Tuesday afternoon. BYU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning verses the Sun Devils and never looked back, scoring eight runs on 11 hits. Right fielder Cole Gambill had a big night going 3-4 with two home runs, a double, four RBI and three runs scored.

The Cougars (13-23, 6-9) now turn their attention to Saint Mary’s (20-19, 9-9) who comes to Provo in fifth place in the WCC, while BYU enters the weekend series in seventh. Nationally ranked Gonzaga leads the conference at 14-4, with San Diego in second at 11-4.

Thursday and Friday games are scheduled for 6 p.m. MDT, with the Saturday contest at 1 p.m. BYU is 5-4 at home this year, while the Gaels are 9-7 on the road.

Saint Mary’s won two of three games (4-9, 3-2, 3-2) from Pacific at home over the weekend, while the Cougars dropped three games at No. 27 ranked Gonzaga, before rebounding with a big win over ASU on Tuesday.

Game one on Thursday features BYU right-hander Easton Walker (1-4, 2.68 ERA) versus Gaels righty Ryan Taurek (2-1, 2.91 ERA). Walker has appeared in 10 games for the Cougars and has given up 15 earned runs, while recording 49 strikeouts over 50.1 innings. Taurek has pitched in 12 games for the Gaels with five starts. He has given up with 14 earned runs and has 40 strikeouts in 43.1 innings of work. 

BYU and SMC have met 32 times in baseball, with the Cougars holding a 22-10 overall advantage in the series and a 11-1 record at home. Due to the 2020 pandemic, the WCC foes last met during the 2019 regular season in Provo on March 28-30. BYU swept the series 3-0 with scores of 5-3, 11-0, 10-6. The Cougars would go on to finish the season 36-17 and win the WCC regular season title with a 18-9 record. 

All three games of the series will be broadcast live on the BYUtv App as well as online at BYUtv.org. The Friday and Saturday games will also be broadcast live on BYUtv. The BYU Sports Network—BYU Radio FM 107.9, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app—will have the radio broadcast of all three games.