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Orem — Maybe coach Mike Littlewood's BYU baseball team should allow pitchers to throw perfect games against them more often.

Since failing to get a runner on base against Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles on March 25, the Cougars have won eight of nine games, including victories over instate rivals Utah and Utah Valley.

Using strong pitching, stellar defense and freshman David Clawson's big three-run home run, the Cougars walloped the Wolverines 8-3 on Tuesday night at Brent Brown Ballpark in the Crosstown Clash.

BYU (18-12) now turns its attention to a weekend series at Miller Park against Pepperdine hoping to keep its grip on first place in the West Coast Conference.

"These are definitely big games. Against in-state rivals, we want to win those," said BYU first baseman Tanner Chauncey, who went 4 for 4 and drove in a run. "It is tough to keep that same kind of energy that we have in weekend games, playing conference opponents, but it makes it easy when we are playing UVU and Utah, those in-state rivalries."

Littlewood said the Cougars are playing their best baseball of the season because of outstanding pitching. That was the case again Tuesday, as No. 4 starter Jordan Wood handcuffed Utah Valley (11-20) and held the Wolverines scoreless through five innings.

"Our approach was to just bring energy, just have a lot of energy, play our game, and not really worry about what they are doing and put together good at-bats," Littlewood said. "Of course, tried to find that fourth starter, and with Jordan Wood [doing it]. We had our fingers crossed that he would come out and give us a solid outing, and he did. He gave us exactly what we needed."

The Cougars got to UVU starter Ondrej Sebek early, touching him for two runs in the first as Chauncey and Daniel Schneeman drove in runs after Brennon Anderson and Chauncey led off with singles.

Clawson's 3-run homer, which landed on the rocks beyond the right-field fence and bounded onto the Interstate-15 onramp, made it 5-0 in the second and the Cougars were cruising. Kringlen drove in Anderson with a single to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead.

Wood ran into some trouble in the sixth when Trevor Peterson led off with a walk and scored on Zac Willis' sacrifice fly. Jackson Overlund's triple plated Trevor Howell and chased Wood, and Jake Berry's grounder drove in Overlund to make it 6-3.

Bo Burrup kept the Wolverines in check from midway through the sixth to the eighth, and Riley Gates struck out the side in the ninth.

The Cougars added a run in the seventh when Kringlen led off with a triple and scored on Bronson Larsen's single. They tacked on a run in the ninth when Kyle Dean's sacrifice fly brought home Kringlen.

Dean made a spectacular catch in deep center to rob Willis of an extra-base hit and the Cougars played error-free ball.

"Kyle just ran down a ball," Littlewood marveled. "It seems like he's got Velcro in his glove. He gets his glove on it, the ball sticks in there. I don't know how it happens."

Bronson Larsen also made a phenomenal throw from left field that nailed UVU's Willis at the plate in the fourth inning and kept the Wolverines off the board.

"A lot of our guys grew up playing with those guys, so you always want to win and have instate bragging rights," Chauncey said.

The Cougars improved to 23-9 all-time against UVU, and has won seven of the last eight matchups against their Utah County neighbor.

Softball

BYU 13, Southern Utah 3, • In Cedar City, the No. 20 Cougars (28-10) belted four homers in a rout of the Thunderbirds (9-21).

Caitlyn Larsen Alldredge went 2 for 3, with two home runs, four RBIs and three runs scored.

Tennis

Utah 4, Utah State 2 • In Logan, after losing two out of three doubles sets to drop the opening point, Utah (8-8) won at Nos. 3-6 singles to secure the victory over in-state rival Utah State (10-10).