BYU baseball

After dropping the first two games of the series against San Diego, BYU's baseball team was hoping for a sigh of relief in Saturday's final game against the Toreros.

But when the dust settled, it was the No. 19 Toreros who commanded the contest and took a 12-6 victory to complete the series sweep of the Cougars.

"Every facet of the game, they were very, very good," BYU coach Vance Law said of the Toreros. "I think this is as good of an offensive team top to bottom that we've faced in a number of years."

BYU's hopes for a win in the series started off on the right note, as starting pitcher Adam Miller got three strikeouts and a groundout in the first 1.1 innings. But Connor Joe singled with one out in the second inning and scored on an error, an A.J. Robinson single and Andrew Daniel sacrifice fly gave San Diego a 3-0 lead.

"The first thing is always control," Law said. "When guys start hitting Adam, it's because he's elevated the ball and he's getting the batter into hitters' counts."

The Cougar offense responded in the second inning when Jaycob Brugman singled and scored on a Brock Whitney base hit. Whitney was 3-for-4 from the plate and joined Brugman as the only Cougars with multiple hits in the contest.

"He had a nice day and he lined a couple of balls to the right side which was really important," Law said.

Miller, who went three innings and gave up five hits and three runs, surrendered base knocks to the first two batters of the fourth inning before giving way to relief pitcher Mason Marshall.

The Toreros tagged Marshall for four runs over 3 ²⁄₃ innings of work and held a 10-2 lead in the top of the eighth.

The Cougars offense finally awoke and picked up four runs in the home half of the eighth, three of which came on a bases-clearing triple from Dillon Robinson. Robinson scored later in the inning on an Adam Law sacrifice fly.

While the Cougars offense struggled, the four-run eighth inning came against San Diego's Michael Wagner, who is arguably the top closer in the nation.

"We put four runs up against possibly the top closer of the country, granted there was no real pressure on him in that situation up 10-2, but I'm pleased with the guys that are continuing to try," Law said.

San Diego (36-11 overall, 13-5 WCC) added two more runs in the ninth inning before retiring the Cougars and securing the victory.

BYU (18-21, 7-8) will host Southern Utah on Tuesday before heading to Pepperdine for a showdown with the Waves.

With injuries and suspensions leaving the Cougars shallow on the depth chart -- particulary in pitching -- Law isn't ready to call it.

"We still believe in our guys," Law said. "Certainly we're short-handed, but that doesn't mean that the guys we have can't fill in and do the job. There's a reason they're here."