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Provo • Utah's quest to win a season baseball series from BYU will have to wait a few more weeks, at least.

In the second of a three-game series pitting the longtime rivals, BYU's Hayden Nielsen hit a run-scoring single off Brock Duke, his former Spanish Fork High teammate, in the eighth inning to give the Cougars a 7-6 win at Larry H. Miller Field in front of a season-high 1,848 fans.

"That's a microcosm of Hayden Nielsen," said BYU coach Mike Littlewood. "He finds a way to get it done."

Utah (13-23) took a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning on a grand slam by Dallas Carroll, Carroll's first career homer, but couldn't hold it as BYU chipped away with runs in the fifth and seventh before Nielsen plated pinch-runner Brian Hsu in the eighth.

Littlewood said the at-bat of the game for the Cougars (18-19) was Dillon Robinson's appearance in the seventh when he drove in Brennon Lund to knot the score at 6.

"If he doesn't do that, we are probably still playing right now," Littlewood said.

Freshman Colton Shaver, a Jordan High product, also came up big for BYU, hitting a 3-run homer in the third to give BYU a 4-2 lead. Then Shaver hit a solo blast in the fifth right after Utah coach Bill Kinneberg pulled starter Dylan Drachler, who gave up two homers to Shaver in Salt Lake City last month in a 9-3 Utes win.

"Yeah, I squared that one up," Shaver said of the 3-run shot.

Four BYU pitchers — Brady Corless, Mason Marshall, Brandon Kinser and closer Michael Rucker — held the Utes to five hits. Cody Scaggari hit a solo shot off Corless in the first inning, but the BYU starter would strike out six, a career-high, before giving way to Marshall in the sixth.

Utah has not won a season series over BYU since 1998, when it went 4-2 against the Cougars. The rivals tied 2-2 in 2014 and 2008 and BYU has won the other 14 series since 1998.

With this season's series now tied at 1, Utah can break the streak with a win May 12 in Salt Lake City.

"The win is big for a lot of different reasons: bragging rights, recruiting, it is Utah-BYU," said Littlewood. "It is a game that we feel like we have to win, and I know coach Kinneberg feels like he has to win. Sometimes we understate it, because Bill and I are such good friends and we have a lot of respect for each other. At least I do for him."

drew@sltrib.com Twitter: @drewjay

Twitter: @drewjay —

BYU 7, Utah 6

• Hayden Nielsen's infield single scores Brian Hsu with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth as BYU evens the season series at 1.

• Freshman Colton Shaver hits a 3-run homer and a solo homer for the Cougars.

• Utah's Dallas Carroll hits the first homer of his career, a grand slam, to give the Utes a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning.