Blair Homer, Strong Pitching Lifts UW Past BYU, 1-0

Thursday, April 18

Seattle, WA

6:05 PM

University of Washington

17-15

Brigham Young

24-10

BYU

Washington

Connor Blair hit his 8th home run on Thursday.

April 18, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Brian Tom

SEATTLE – Connor Blair hit a solo home run in the eighth inning and three Husky pitchers combined to hold BYU to three hits in a 1-0 shutout win at Husky Ballpark Thursday night.

The win improved the Huskies to 17-15 on the season and 8-3 at home. BYU dropped to 24-10 on the season.

Blair was coming off a 5-for-5 day against Santa Clara on Monday and he followed that performance up with a 2-for-4 night and extended his season-high hit streak to nine games. The junior right fielder, who said post-game that he had a paper due at midnight and was anxious to finish it, took an 0-1 pitch from Reid McLaughlin (5-1) and yanked it into the BYU bullpen beyond the left-field fence. It was his team-leading eighth home run of the year and essentially insured he would be able to turn in his assignment with time to spare.

With a 1-0 lead, the Huskies turned to Stevie Emanuels, who has yet to allow a run in April. The sophomore would keep his perfect month intact. He issued a two-out walk but rebounded to strike out cleanup hitter Jackson Cluff to end the game and earn his second save of the year.

Starting pitching was the story of the game through six innings. BYU starter Jordan Wood and UW starter Jordan Jones both allowed three hits and kept the opposition of the scoreboard, but both were gone from the game by the seventh inning.

The Huskies had the biggest threats in the early part of the game, getting a base runner in scoring position in every inning between the third and sixth. Unable to capitalize, though, they turned to Jones to keep them in the game and the junior obliged nicely in his six innings of work.

Jones struck out five and did not walk a batter. He threw 72 pitches, with his last one being hit into centerfield for a single in the seventh by lead-off hitter Brock Hale. He handed the ball over to Chris Micheles (3-1), and the junior would go the next two innings, striking out four and picking up his third win of the season.

The teams will play game two of the series Friday at 6:00 p.m. It should be another good pitching match up as the Huskies will send Josh Burgmann (3-2, 2.62) to the mound to face Easton Walker (4-0, 0.82).