This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City • Brigham Young battered Utah 20-3 in its first meeting, but Cougar righty Brandon Kinser had some unfinished business.
The junior transfer allowed all three of Utah's runs on March 4, and he couldn't forgive himself until Tuesday, when he tossed four innings of shutout relief to lift BYU 4-3 in 11 innings against the Utes at Smith's Ballpark.
"Our pitchers were really shooting for a shutout, and I ended up giving up those first three runs," Kinser said of the blowout-but-not-shutout. "It felt really good to come back and have another shot at them, and Coach Littlewood gave it to me."
BYU (9-17) pulled ahead in the top of the 11th, a rally sparked by senior first baseman Brock Whitney's third hit of the evening, a single. Junior Jarrett Jarvis followed with another single as Whitney stole second, and then with runners on first and third, junior Parker Starr executed a safety squeeze to score Whitney ahead of a frantic flip home by Utah senior first baseman T.J. Bennett.
Kinser (2-2) then set down the Utes in the bottom half for the victory.
"We had lots of opportunities throughout the whole game," said Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg. "We had a lead and didn't hold it. We just didn't score when we had opportunities to score again."
The Cougars rallied from 3-1 down on Whitney's two-RBI double off the left-center wall in the top of the eighth. Utah's Braden Anderson crashed hard into the wall and appeared to lay motionless for a few moments before trainers helped him to his feet and he returned to action.
Senior Nick Green (0-1) took the loss for the U., which squandered a 6-inning, four-hit, no-walk performance from sophomore starter Dalton Carroll.
Whitney went 3-for-5 with three RBIs on the night. Shortstop Cory Hunt led the Utes at the plate in going 1-for-4 with two RBIs.
"In the big picture, it's always great to beat Utah," said BYU head coach Mike Littlewood. "Recruiting, and for a lot of different reasons it's good to beat Utah, but bigger picture, it's going to get our program rolling a little bit this year."
The two teams next meet May 6 for their third of four games this season. BYU next plays at Saint Mary's on Thursday, while the Utes head to Cal on Friday.
Twitter: @matthew_piper