PROVO, Utah – The Saint Mary's baseball team recorded 10 hits but could not overcome a 7-run third inning by Brigham Young as the Cougars defeated the Gaels 11-1 in the opening game of an important West Coast Conference series.

With the loss, Saint Mary's drops to 21-32, 11-11 WCC, while BYU improves to 28-19, 13-9 WCC. The Gaels must win the next two games in the series to have a shot at earning a WCC Tournament berth.

Cole Norton accounted for the Gaels' run with a home run in the sixth inning. Brenden Kalfus recorded a base hit in the fourth inning, extending his hitting streak to 35 games, the longest in the nation this year. Collin Ferguson had a perfect day going 4-for-4 from the plate with two doubles.

On the mound, Ben Griset (4-4) took the loss, running into trouble in the third inning. Many of the BYU hits in the inning, just found an opening or landed in no man's land. SMC did hurt themselves with three errors in the game.

Kelsey Outram and David Dellaserra also saw action out of the bullpen, giving up just two earned runs in the final 5.2 frames.

Saint Mary's is back in action on Friday night at BYU with a first pitch set for 5:00 p.m. (PT) in Provo.