Poor weather conditions plague baseball team
Playing outside for the first time in a month wasn’t everything Utah State University club baseball players hoped it would be. They came home with a 0-4 weekend record.
“These teams have been playing outside since January and it was our first time out in a month,” USU club baseball Head Coach Ernie Rivers said. “We had a good weekend though.”
When the Aggies traveled to Ogden to take on Dawson Community College, the team had to wait for snow to be raked off the field.
The game went fine until 45 minuntes in when a blizzard hit and the teams were unable to see, Rivers said.
Rivers said the game was postponed for about 10 minutes until the sun came out again and play was continued.
Friday the team lost 8-3 and 7-2 to Utah Valley State College.
The team played better against Dawson Community College, but still came out on the losing end.
Heading into the last inning of the first game, the teams were tied at eight. The Aggies gave up two runs and lost 10-8. In the fifth inning of the second game Dawson scored four runs and the final score was 13-8.
“Overall we did a lot better against Dawson,” Rivers said. “Our problem was our pitching was a little rusty and our batting wasn’t as hard as it could be,” Rivers said.
For some, the batting was right on swing.
Jared Shephard, Brett Thompson, Jason Clark and Rich Hansen all had home runs.
“All four players had really good games,” Rivers said. “Clark had seven RBI’s against Dawson. Shephard went four for six with a double homer and three RBIs.”
Rivers said the team is hitting the ball well but needs to work better on defense and more solid pitching.
Despite the losses, the weekend was a good experience for the Aggies to get outside and play.
“It helped out tremendously,” Rivers said. “It is a big adjustment going from indoors to the outdoors. The lighting is different and you can’t see where the balls are going in the batting cage. If we hadn’t played these games we would be at a big disadvantage.”
The team will start their conference games this week. The team belongs to the Western Mountain Conference.
“We will get to work out some of our kinks before the conference starts,” Rivers said.
The Aggies will be playing their first conference games Wednesday and Thursday against Weber State University on the Wildcats’ home turf. Two games will be played Wednesday starting at 2 p.m. The Thursday game will be at 6 p.m. All games will be held at Linquist Field.
The team has already beaten Weber twice this season.