BYU baseball: Cougars use eight pitchers, another Shaver homer, to beat Utah 6-0 – Salt Lake Tribune (blog)

Littlewood said nobody sees a 16-1 start coming, not even the most optimistic of coaches.

“The thing I like about it is the guys don’t feel real tense about it,” he said. “We have had a lot of talks about how top 25 doesn’t matter. That wasn’t even one of our goals. We wanted to get off to a good start, and obviously we’ve gotten off to a good start. That gives us the potential to have a high RPI, to be ranked high and go into our league with a lot of confidence.”

The Cougars are ranked No. 29 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll.

“It is a nice feather in our cap, but we are not going to rest on our laurels of being ranked. It is nice to be playing well. Whether we are 8-8, 10-7, whatever we are, it is nice to be playing well with guys who want to go out and compete every game,” Littlewood said.

Riley Gates got the win for BYU after pitching in just the fourth inning; Utah starter Josh Lapiana took the loss after allowing five hits and two runs in four innings of work.

With temperatures plunging to 34 degrees and snow flurries in the air, 1,880 fans took in the game at Miller Park.

Brennon Anderson got the Cougars rolling in the fourth with an RBI triple, then scored on Brock Hale’s single.

In the fifth, Tanner Chauncey and Eric Urry doubled, with Urry’s shot scoring Chauncey, and then Shaver delivered the bomb over the left field fence off Utah’s Josh Tedeschi.

The Cougars added an insurance run in the eighth when Nate Favero reached on an infield hit misplayed by Utah’s shortstop.

Maverik Buffo, Hayden Rogers, Easton Walker, Gates, Zach Brinkerhoff, Keaton Cenatiempo, Bo Burrup and Mason Marshall combined on the shutout. Cenatiempo closed the door on a Utes’ rally in the fifth after Brinkerhoff struggled with his control. Marshall preserved the shutout in the ninth.

“The main thing we want to do in here is obviously get our starters rested and get our pen some work,” said Littlewood, explaining that the plan all along was to use as many pitchers as possible because the Cougars played five games last week. “You saw that we were successful when we threw strikes. The only inning we got in a jam was when we didn’t throw strikes. So I was really proud of my guys. Everybody that came in did a great job.”

For the Utes, Kelly Ellis went 3 for 4, the only Utah player to get more than one hit.

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