5th inning rally lifts BYU baseball past Utah for series-opening win

Yahoo Sports2h ago12 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

BYU baseball rallied in the fifth inning to defeat Utah, overcoming a two-run deficit. The Cougars scored multiple runs, led by a two-RBI single from catcher Ridge Erickson.

Key points

BYU baseball rallied in the fifth inning
The Cougars were down by two runs
Ridge Erickson hit a two-RBI single
BYU had previously stranded multiple runners
The game took place at Larry H. Miller Field

BYU CougarsUtah UtesNCAA Baseball

BYU outfielder Tu'alau Wolfgramm (22) celebrates with outfielder Crew McChesney (3) after a two-RBI single by catcher Ridge Erickson (29), not pictured, during the fifth inning of a baseball game against Utah at Larry H. Miller Field in Provo on Thursday, April 30, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

For the first four innings Thursday night against Utah, the BYU baseball team couldn’t muster any offensive momentum.

The Cougars weren’t without opportunities, having put seven men on base, but they only managed to get one run out of the early traffic, repeatedly fading with runners in scoring position. Anything that could have become a spark was quickly extinguished.

In the bottom of the fifth, BYU trailed by two runs and had runners at the corners. The Cougars had already stranded two men on three separate occasions, so when Bryker Hurdsman had two strikes against him in a two-out at bat, there was fair reason to believe a fourth such disappointment was imminent.

But Hurdsman wouldn’t be the one to make that third out — it took the Utes another five batters after him to finally escape the frame, at which point BYU had scored five runs to pull ahead with a comfortable cushion.

The Cougars never looked back following their fifth inning breakthrough, as they held on to capture a 6-4 victory in Provo to open the 3-game rivalry series.

“I think we got unlucky early. We hit some balls hard and got caught, you know what I mean? I thought we had really good at-bats and got (Utah starting pitcher Colter McAnelly’s) pitch count up and maybe wore him down a little bit, so I liked our approach throughout, it was just a matter of time before we got a big hit,” BYU head coach Trent Pratt said postgame.

“We had guys on base every inning, and we just couldn’t come through the big hit, and then in that (fifth) inning, we were able to come through with a couple big hits and put a five on the board.”