PROVO, Utah – BYU defeated Portland by a 3-1 margin in West Coast Conference baseball action Friday night at Miller Park. The Cougars (16-5, 3-2 WCC) have taken the first two games of the three-game series, while the Pilots fall to 15-8 overall and 1-4 in league play.

Sophomore right-hander Eli Morse (2-2) pitched a gem for the Pilots, but took the hard-luck loss. He went 7.2 innings allowing just three runs (two earned). Morse scattered seven hits and three walks while striking out seven.

Easton Walker (2-0) picked up the win for BYU. He tossed six innings of shutout ball, allowing just one hit, one walk and striking out five. Drew Zimmerman recorded the final four outs of the game to pick up his third save of the season.

The Cougars scored a pair of runs in the fourth with RBI singles by Mitch McIntyre and Noah Hill for a 2-0 lead.

Cody Hawken and Hunter Montgomery recorded back-to-back singles to mount a seventh inning rally. Hawken would come in to score on a Tracye Tammaro sacrifice fly to cut the deficit in half.

Portland then mounted a two-out rally to load the bases in the eight. Chad Stevens and Matt Kelly singled, and then Daniel Lopez walked. Zimmerman then came on and induced a groundout to end the rally.

BYU added an insurance run with a two-out, run-scoring single by McIntyre in the eighth and then Zimmerman retired the Pilots in order to close it out in the ninth.

Portland finished with five hits, two errors and left six runners on base. The Cougars collected seven hits, committed one error and stranded seven baserunners.

McIntyre was the only player in the game with two hits.

The three-game series will conclude with a noon first pitch on Saturday.