PROVO, Utah — The temperature read 88 degrees at first pitch, the Wasatch Mountains were still catching the last of the daylight behind right field, and Ezra McNaughton was already in the on-deck circle when Utah Valley’s Kaden Carpenter punched a solo home run over the right-center wall to put the Wolverines up 1-0 in the top of the first.

It was the last good moment Utah Valley had at Larry H. Miller Field on Tuesday night.

In the bottom half of the inning, with Luke Anderson aboard, McNaughton — BYU’s sophomore second baseman — turned on a pitch and drove it off the netting above the right field video board for his 15th home run of the season. The crowd was still settling into its seats. From that point, the BYU Cougars never trailed, pouring on seven runs in the fourth inning on the way to a 13-3 mercy-rule win over their crosstown rival, called in seven by the ten-run rule.

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For head coach Trent Pratt, the home run was the kind of swing he’s been talking about all season.

“Every team wants someone that can anchor the lineup,” Pratt said postgame. “You put him in the middle, try and get as many at-bats, and he comes up in big situations. Teams try to pitch around him a little bit. To have a guy like that in our lineup is huge — it helps the guy in front of him and the guy behind him get better pitches. I’m just proud of what Ez has done and the season he’s having.”

The win completes a season sweep of Utah Valley — BYU also took the first meeting 10-5 in Orem on April 7 — and pushes the Cougars to 26-25 overall and 13-14 in the Big 12 as they head into a closing weekend series against No. 17 Kansas. The Jayhawks come to Provo Thursday for the final Big 12 regular-season series of the year, with the conference tournament in Surprise, Arizona, the week after.

“It means a lot, just to get the momentum going into this weekend,” McNaughton said, still in uniform after the game. “It’s a big series. Playing against the other Utah school, it always gets your energy going a little more. To be able to come out and play well on both sides of the field — we hit well, we pitched well — that was awesome.”

The pitching note matters. Red-shirt freshman Blade Paragas got the start and gave the Cougars usable innings after a long absence — Pratt called him “probably one of our top arms” coming into the season before an arm injury kept him sidelined for most of it.

“It just took a long time to get him healthy and back,” Pratt said. “We’re excited to have him back. It just keeps building for him. Hopefully he keeps getting better and we can use him this weekend and in the tournament next week as well.”

The Cougars cycled through six relievers behind Paragas — Brock Snow, Austin Park, Jaxon Clayton, Luke Sterner, Tyler Ball, and Bryant Ball — combining for 10 strikeouts across seven innings. It’s the kind of staff depth that travels well into a tournament bracket, and Pratt has been pointing toward exactly that.

“When we throw a ton of strikes and throw a secondary pitch for a strike, we have a good chance to win,” he said. “We have some guys on the mound that can beat anyone at any time. It’s about them believing in it, executing pitches, and playing defense behind them.”

McNaughton, for his part, framed the season — and the team — in terms that sounded less like a stat line and more like something carried from somewhere else. The sophomore spent two years on an LDS mission in Las Vegas before returning to baseball, and he carries his father’s and uncle’s BYU jerseys with him every time he takes the field.

“A mission is an amazing experience,” he said. “It’s completely different than baseball, but it’s also similar. You’ve got to be disciplined, you’ve got to work hard. Bringing those things together makes all aspects of life a lot better.”

He paused on the family part.

“I’ve heard them talk about playing BYU baseball their entire life. To be here right now experiencing it — it’s pretty awesome.”

Six days from now, the Cougars will be in Arizona, playing for a postseason they’ve been climbing the ladder toward since joining the Big 12 in 2024. They’ll get there on the back of arms that are finally healthy, a lineup that has a middle-of-the-order anchor, and a sophomore who keeps talking about momentum like a person who knows where his came from.

The Wasatch had gone full dark by then. The scoreboard read final.

Photo: BYU sophomore Ezra McNaughton at the plate against Utah Valley at Larry H. Miller Field, May 12, 2026. (Photo: Brigham Young University Athletics / Duff Tittle)