Effective pitching leads Aggie baseball past Montana State
The Aggies concluded a successful fall season with a nail-biting 9-8 victory over Montana State University in Providence on Oct. 27.
The Aggies were able to set the tone early with their powerful offense and solid pitching.
The Aggie batters had no problems figuring out Bobcat pitcher Joe Youland as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Blake Terry, Orion Bell, Greg Palmer, John Redd and Alex Davis all had multi-hit games.
“It was kind of like batting practice out there,” Redd said.
The Aggies even received offensive help in unexpected ways. Second baseman Spencer Beard, who is definitely not known as a power hitter, drilled a homerun to left field in the third inning much to the surprise of his team.
“Spencer shocked us all when he hit that ball out,” Al-Imari said.
Beard seemed equally shocked.
“He just gave me the perfect pitch in my favorite spot – inside low. The swing felt really good, but I had no clue it was going to go out,” Beard said. “This was my first collegiate homerun.”
The Bobcats had no answer for starting pitcher Adam Blackham, who threw four dominant innings. Blackham, who is already known for his devastating fastball and excellent curveball, introduced a changeup to his arsenal.
“All throughout high school, I threw mainly a fastball and curve. My high school coach told me that if I mixed it up with a changeup, I would be a little bit more effective,” Blackham said. “I decided since fall ball is kind of like preseason, I would try to see if I could work it in since it was our last game and it worked for me.”
In fact, it worked so well that Blackham struck out four consecutive batters with the changeup at one point. He finished with seven strikeouts for the game.
“I think the biggest key for us was Adam Blackham coming out and setting the tone for the game and getting a bunch of strikeouts early. He came out with a lot of confidence and dominated the first few innings,” Coach Bret Al-Imari said.
Montana State was still able to mount an impressive comeback late in the game. Down by three going into the ninth inning, the Bulldogs were able to fill the bases. A couple of wild pitches allowed two runs to score, cutting the Aggie lead to 9-8 with the bases still loaded and two out.
The Aggies were able to get the final Bulldog batter to groundout, allowing the team to escape with the win.
The Aggies expect many more hard-fought games with Montana State this coming spring.
“They’re going to be a tough team in this conference. I think Montana State and Weber State are going to be the two teams that we are going to have to go up against to win the conference in the spring,” Al-Imari said.
The spring season will begin in March.