PROVO, Utah — Friday night's ballgame against BYU was a bit different for Saint Mary's Baseball. After falling behind early and being unable to come back, the Gaels were the ones scoring first and taking a lead, behind what appeared to be dominant pitching. BYU responded well, however, and came back to take game two of the series with a final score of 4-2. Saint Mary's now is at 20-19 (9-11) while BYU improves to 15-23 (8-9) and is on the verge of a series sweep tomorrow.
 
ENOUGH WAITING
The Gaels were the aggressors in this one, using a strong two-out rally to take the early lead in Provo. It all began with Justin Banks batting with two outs, and he doubled to the alley in left center. On the very next pitch, Blake Mann hit a bouncing ball to the right side that just barely snuck through, and trickled deep enough into right field to allow Banks to score, giving the Gaels a 1-0 lead. Following the single, Javy Espinoza was hit by a pitch on what would have been ball four, putting two Gaels on. With Kyle Velazquez at the plate, a pair of wild pitches from BYU starter Jack Sterner scored Mann from second base, and the Gaels were out in front with a 2-0 edge.
 
BLINK! AND IT'S GONE
It's tough to envision a better start to a game for Gaels starting pitcher Sam Bower. The first two batters of the game were out on the very first pitch, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. As a matter of fact, Bower retired the first 10 batters he faced, and did so on a miniscule 25 pitches. Five of those 10 hitters went down on the first pitch, and Bower recorded four strikeouts during that stretch. Bower has a history of pitching efficiently in the middle of the Gaels rotation, and it typically allows him to go deep into games, as he did on Friday night, where he made it through seven innings. Also pitching a tidy eighth inning was Christopher Campos, who returned from injury and struck out two in a perfect eighth.
 
THE ROUGH PATCH
BYU did its damage in the middle innings, tying the game in the fourth and then adding on in fifth and sixth innings. BYU broke up the perfect game effort from Bower with a single with one down in the fourth. That was part of four-consecutive singles for the Cougars, and the last two scored the first runs of the game for BYU, tying it at 2-2. In the fifth inning, a rare walk from Bower with two down allowed two more Cougars to hit, and they both singled, scoring one run and making it 3-2. In the sixth, a first-pitch home run from Cole Gambill capped off the scoring at 4-2 and put an exclamation point on an otherwise dull night from the BYU offense.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will look to salvage a game in the series on Saturday afternoon with a 12:00 pm PT (1:00 pm local time) first pitch against BYU. Ky Bush will take the mound for the Gaels, continuing to impress as the season winds down. Bush has struck out 20 over his last two starts, spanning 13.2 innings. If he is able to help the Gaels head home with a win, it will be the first Saint Mary's win in Provo since the 2015 season.