BYU baseball survives elimination game against Sacramento State
By Joshua Ellis
BYU baseball won its fifth straight elimination game and defeated Sacramento State 6-1 to stay alive in the Stanford Regional of the NCAA tournament.
The Cougars were led by Tanner Chauncey who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs in the elimination game.
Daniel Schneemann had two hits and an RBI while Brennon Anderson and Bronson Larsen each added an RBI for BYU baseball.
Sacramento State opened the scoring in the first with a two-out RBI double.
BYU’s first runs came in the third, beginning with an RBI double from Anderson.
Schneemann followed up with a sacrifice fly to score Anderson and Chauncey added an RBI single after that to make it 3-1 BYU.
In the sixth, Chauncey opened the inning with a single and Keaton Kringlen reached first afterward on an error by the first baseman.
Brock Hale hit an RBI single, bringing home Chauncey and stretching BYU baseball’s lead to three.
The Cougars couldn’t add more to the lead, leaving the bases loaded to end the inning.
Hayden Rogers pitched 6.1 innings for BYU and had eight strikeouts.
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Mason Marshall entered the game in relief and gave up one hit over 2.2 innings to seal the win.
Chauncey had an RBI double in the seventh to push BYU’s lead to 6-1, and the Cougars never looked back.
BYU will face the loser of the Stanford versus Cal State Fullerton game tomorrow at 1 p.m. PDT in another elimination game.
Going back to the West Coast Conference tournament last week, BYU has now won five straight elimination games.
To advance to the Super Regionals, the Cougars will need to extend that streak to eight.