PROVO, Utah --- The Brigham Young Cougars built an early lead before prevailing 11-3 over the Portland Pilots in a West Coast Conference baseball game played on Friday night at Miller Park. Matt Kelly had a pair of hits for the Pilots, while Jason Rosen claimed two of the three RBI's.
 
Beau Brundage also ran his hitting streak to 11 games, which is a season-high for Portland (10-36-1, 5-18 WCC).
 
First-place BYU (31-15, 19-4 WCC) jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the bottom of the first inning and five more in the third off of Portland starter Grady Miller. Daniel Schneemann and Nate Favero both had doubles during that third inning, with two runs scoring on Favero's extra base hit.
 
The Cougars added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning before the Pilots got on the board with a three-run fifth. Two runs scored on a double driven into the corner by Rosen, while Brundage knocked in another run with a base hit to center, which cut the Portland deficit to 9-3.
 
But that's as close as the Pilots would get as the Cougars, who feature one of the top offenses in the country, added a run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the seventh.
 
Miller (1-8) went 4.0 innings, and relievers Camden Muller and Christian Peters combined to hold the Cougars without an earned run during the final 4.0 innings. Muller struck out two during his inning of work, while Peters scattered three hits and fanned three in 3.0 innings.
 
BYU starter Brady Corless (6-0) struck out 10 in 7.1 innings, but he did walk six and allowed five hits as the Pilots left 10 runners stranded on base.
 
The Pilots will look to salvage a win in the conference series with the finale on Saturday, which is slated to begin at 12 p.m. (Pacific).