BYU Edges CSUN 5-3 in Season Opener

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball rallied from a two-run deficit but BYU scored twice in the late innings to pull off a 5-3 victory in both teams' season opener on Friday afternoon at Matador Field. Four Matadors had multi-hit games led by Justin Toerner who had three hits with a run scored. Making their Matador debuts, Trevor Casanova went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Joey Cooper drove in two runs and finished with a single. On the mound, Tei Vanderford surrendered three runs on five hits over six innings of work and struck out two batters.

"We took good at bats all day but we really just didn't string together the timely hits when we needed it," said head coach Greg Moore. "I liked that we moved on defense, I liked how we played defense, and I thought we pitched pretty well. It was just a good college baseball game. There were probably two ways we could have won and they had three they could have. They got us today. All in all, we should leave here saying that we got to build on it and keep getting better."

The game resembled a pitching duel early as Vanderford and BYU's Jordan Wood were strong through the first three innings. Vanderford gave up a hit and a walk through the first three innings including retiring six in a row at one point while Wood sat down six of the first eight batters he faced.

In the third, the Matadors struck first against Wood. Brandon Bohning hit a one-out single, his first as a Matador, to kick off the rally. Alvaro Rubalcaba moved up Bohning to second base on a ground ball to the left side before Cooper hit a bloop RBI single to center field to plate the game's first run.

The Cougars would respond quickly in the fourth to even the game off a pair of extra base hits. Keaton Kringlen hit the top of the right field wall for a leadoff double. Moments later, Brock Hale stroked a double to left off the wall to bring home the tying run. Two batters later, Kyle Dean hit a sacrifice fly to right center field to put the Cougars on top 2-1.

After Wood stranded a baserunner on second base in the bottom of the fourth, the Cougars struck again in the fifth. Brian Hsu doubled to kick off the frame, and he later scored on an RBI single from Brennon Anderson.

The Matadors threatened in the sixth after Casanova singled and Albee Weiss hit a towering flyball to left that was dropped by left fielder Kringlen, putting two runners in scoring position. However, Wood wiggled out of trouble by inducing a groundball off the bat of Kevin Riley. First baseman Hsu made the play and was able to throw out Weiss who strayed too far away from second base.

CSUN broke through in seventh inning following a series of quality at bats. After Wood was lifted in favor of reliever Bo Burrup, Toerner and Nolan Bumstead greeted the left hander unkindly with back-to-back singles. Burrup rallied with consecutive strikeouts but the next three batters would work walks.

Working the count full, Rubalcaba walked to load the bases with two outs. Cooper followed and worked to a full count before taking ball four, forcing in a run. Casanova saw six pitches, worked the count full as well, and walked to plate the tying run. After a change on the mound, Weiss got into another 3-2 count against right hander Jake Suddreth before fouling out behind the plate.

In the eighth, a costly CSUN error led to the go-ahead run coming across. With a runner at first and one out, Hale hit a grounder to shortstop where an out was made but the relay went past Casanova at first base. The next batter, Nate Favero, brought home Hale with with an RBI single to left field.

The Cougars brought home an insurance run in the eighth on a home run from Hsu to left field to extend the lead to 5-3.

BYU's closer Riley Gates worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the victory and earn the save. The Matadors, who finished with 11 hits, collected at least one hit in each inning except in the ninth on Friday. The Cougars were able to turn double plays in the sixth and eighth innings to snuff potential Matador rallies.

CSUN and BYU continue a four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is set for 10:30 a.m. Game two will tentatively start at 2 p.m. Ross Porter will call all the action from Matador Field on an audio only broadcast on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health.

BYU Edges CSUN 5-3 in Season Opener

Next Event

Team Stats

Justin Toerner

Trevor Casanova

Nolan Bumstead

Brandon Bohning

Players Mentioned

Brandon Bohning

Nolan Bumstead

Trevor Casanova

Joey Cooper

Kevin Riley

Alvaro Rubalcaba

Justin Toerner

Tei Vanderford

Albee Weiss