USU baseball misses chance to tame the Wildcats
Hoping to take two of three games against Weber State this weekend, the Utah State baseball club came up a game short.
Taking Friday’s game in convincing fashion 13-6, the Aggie club lost the next two 11-1 and 11-4.
“I thought our pitchers threw real well,” said USU Head Coach Ernie Rivers. “We let them down with our defense.”
Game one saw USU jump on the Wildcats early and often. Junior third baseman Dan Gay led the attack, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs, two runs scored, and a home run that rocketed over the right center field fence.
Ty Al-Imari contributed a home run of his own with a moon shot over the left field fence.
Chad Mackert scored a run and ripped two doubles during the contest, while Chris Gorrell delivered three singles and scored two runs.
Brock Yancey started on the hill for the Aggie club throwing the first four innings, holding the Wildcats to two hits and giving up one earned run, while fanning four.
Mike Farr came on in the fifth and finished off Weber State, striking out five.
“Mike and Brock threw as well as expected,” Rivers said. “They are going to be two of our main guys in the spring.”
After playing errorless ball in the first game, the next was a different story for the club, losing 11-1.
“It was one of those games,” Rivers said. “I hope we don’t have too many of them though.”
Playing on a rough field chewed up by the football team at Logan High, the ball took some interesting bounces leading to the Aggie defensive woes. The team committed five errors in the contest.
The young club also faced a different level of pitching than they were accustomed to.
Jason McIntosh pitched in the minor leagues for the Chicago Cubs this summer and Tim Zach, who has pitched for Weber State the last few years and is currently talking with the Cleveland Indians, threw for the Wildcats.
“Jason wanted some work and it’s fall ball so I didn’t mind,” Rivers said. “I thought it would be good for the guys to see pitching of that level.”
The Aggie bats made contact off the high-caliber pitching, managing four hits but striking out four times as well.
Clay Manning drove in the sole USU run.
“We put the bat on the ball against those guys,” Rivers said. “The ball couldn’t find a hole.”
Justin Mittmeermitt started on the mound for USU, going four and two-thirds innings before giving way to Tyler Kohler who went the remainder of the game.
Mittmeermitt gave up only four earned runs during his outing with a team made up primarily of first-year players behind him, Rivers said.
“He threw really well,” Rivers said. “No team is going to win making that many errors.”
Ty Bishop threw the first four innings for the Aggies in the final game of the series. He gave up a home run in the third inning but came back strong retiring the side in the fourth.
Bishop gave up four earned runs during his time on the hill.
“One pitch was up a little and it left the park,” Rivers said. “Bishop will do a good job for the club. It’s still early.”
Justin Johnson pitched the final inning for the team giving up no runs and one hit.
After his second strong outing of the fall, Johnson said he might have to pitch more than he expected for the team this spring.
“We don’t have a lot of arms to throw, so I may have to,” Johnson said. “It’s something I’m going to have to work on over the winter. I can do it, though.”
Johnson, Al-Imari and Sean Maynard all went 2-for-3 in the game with Maynard tripling and Johnson swatting a double.
Johnson said the team has a lot of potential and once the lineup is set, they’ll be very athletic and powerful.
USU plays at Providence against the University of Colorado on Thursday at 7 p.m., a doubleheader Friday starting at 3 p.m. and two games Saturday starting at
11 a.m.
-eds@cc.usu.edu