April 11, 2006 

OREM, Utah - Utah Valley State dropped an 8-6 decision to neighbor BYU on Tuesday in the first of four games during the 2006 season between the two teams. 

The Wolverines struck first in the third inning on a two-out two-run single off of the bat of freshman Chris Benson. 

Cougar freshman Kasey Ko answered that with a two-out two-run single of his own to knot the game up in the top of the fourth.

BYU took the lead on a solo home run by Casey Nelson in the fifth and added two more runs in the inning on RBI singles by Seth Johnson and Marcos Villezcas to take a 5-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Wolverine senior Nick Connor led off the inning with a single to right and scored off of an RBI double by Eli Slesk. 

Cory Newton then delivered a two-out single to score Canyon Vance, cutting BYU's lead to 5-4.

The Cougars got a solo home run from Jeff Hiestand in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead, but UV got that run back with an RBI single from Nick Connor that scored Derrick Thomas.

Once again though, BYU answered Utah Valley's runs with a two-run seventh when Ben Saylor hit a two-out two-run double after an error prolonged the inning. 

Slesk had another RBI single that scored Jason Zundel in the bottom of the eighth but that's as close as Utah Valley State would come as Cortland Andrews came in and struck out the side in the ninth to earn the save for the Cougars.

Clayton Barnes (1-0) earned the win in relief for BYU while Dan Christensen (0-2) allowed five runs in 4 1/3 inning for Utah Valley State.

The Wolverines outhit the Cougars 14-9 but two errors proved costly, leading to two unearned runs.

Utah Valley State will host fellow NCAA Independent Northern Colorado this weekend in a three-game series beginning Friday at 7pm. The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1pm.