BYU eliminated from Big 12 baseball tournament with 4-1 loss to Arizona

ARLINGTON, Texas — BYU outlasted one team from Arizona in the Big 12 baseball tournament, but the Cougars couldn't overtake another from the Grand Canyon State.

Mason White went 2-for-3 with a home run, and Maddox Mihalakis was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI as fourth-seeded Arizona eliminated BYU from the Big 12 Tournament with a 4-1 win in Arlington, Texas.

Arizona starter Owen Kramkowski scattered four hits over six innings with eight strikeouts and a walk to pace Arizona, which out-hit the Cougars 9-6 to take its third win from four meetings with BYU on the year.

Kramkowski moved to 8-5 on the year with the win, and Tony Pluta pitched the final two innings to allow one hit with one strikeout for his 12th save of the season.

Luke Anderson went 2-for-4 with a double, and Parker Goff was 2-for-3 with a double for BYU (28-17), which was playing in the postseason for the first time since 2022.

"It's always tough to see some of the guys play their last game," BYU assistant coach Adam Law told BYU Radio after the game. "But we're super proud and humbled by how hard they've fought for the entire season. It's a good league, and our guys played their hardest."

It didn't take long for the Wildcats (37-18) to swing away. White and Adonys Guzman slugged back-to-back homers off the right- and left-field foul poles, respectively, at Globe Life Field with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.

"That was crazy," Law quipped. "I've never seen that before."

Kramkowski did the rest, pinning down the Cougars with seven strikeouts while pitching a three-hitter through 4 2/3 innings. Crew McChesney and Goff threatened in the top of the fifth with a walk and a single, respectively, to give BYU a runner in scoring position for the first time.

But Kramkowski induced the two-out grounder to end the inning unscathed.

White added a triple in the fifth after fouling off three straight pitches, then came home on Mihalakis' single up the right side to stretch the Wildcats' advantage to 3-0.

Ryder Robinson pulled one back in the top of the eighth for BYU, driving home Goff with a single to right field.

But the Cougars could get no closer, as Dom Rodriguez doubled through the right side to score Mihalakis and restore the three-run advantage in the bottom of the inning to eliminate BYU a day after its first conference tournament win since 2017.

The Cougars' 28 wins are the most since 2022, when they went 33-21 and included a final appearance in the West Coast Conference Tournament.

"It would've been easy to let the thing go sideways," Law said of the year. "Props to them for keeping their attention on what's in their control."

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