Club baseball finishes season on high note
Finishing a fall season filled with ups and downs, the young Aggie baseball team was clicking on all cylinders Saturday, defeating the Utah All-stars 8-3.
Once again the Utah State pitching staff put together a stellar performance holding the All-stars to only five hits, none of which went for extra bases.
“No extra base hits; that doesn’t happen too often,” said Head Coach Ernie Rivers. “The guys threw really well.”
Justin Mcdermeit started on the hill for USU throwing the first six innings, allowing five hits and three runs. Displaying his customary style, he mixed in a biting curve ball and dipping change-up with his fastball, keeping the hitters off balance, making them beat the ball into the ground.
“Justin did what he usually does,” Rivers said. “Almost all of his outs were ground balls. When he throws, the outfield doesn’t have a lot to do.”
Former Bear River catcher Jason Miller made his pitching debut in the seventh and pitched the last three innings, giving up no runs or hits.
“We’re converting him to a pitcher,” Rivers said. “He threw real well. He’s going to help us.”
With five catchers on the roster already, Miller is willing to do what he can to help out the club, Rivers said. Miller started the game in the outfield and will see some time there in the spring. He didn’t get a hit in the game, but made good contact each at bat, Rivers said.
He just wants to play ball and that’s the type of player the club likes.
Having only three returning players available for the game, Rivers turned to his youngsters who have been working hard in practice to correct the problems that plagued them at times during the season.
They responded with their first errorless game in the last few weeks and did the little things Rivers wanted to see – communicating and playing together.
“I think this shows how far we’ve come this fall,” Rivers said. “They played really well, played relaxed.”
The catchers also gave Rivers reason to smile by not allowing a stolen base in the game, forcing the All-stars to work their way around the bases.
“We just put a lot of things together in the game,” Rivers said. “I think we accomplished what we set out to do this fall.”
Sean Maynard didn’t arrive until the sixth inning, but once he got into the game, he made his presence felt, going 2-2 with two home runs and four RBIs. The team also continued to play small ball with Paul Roundy going 3-5 with two doubles and Chris Gorrell having a 3-5 day, all singles with two RBIs.
With the fall season complete, the club plans to take a couple of weeks off and then hit the weight room until January.
“We’ll give some arms a chance to heal, work on getting stronger and start getting ready for spring the beginning of January,” Rivers said. “It’s been a good fall; I’m already looking forward to the spring.”
During the down-time the team will also concentrate on raising money for the upcoming season; selling Utah State Baseball T-shirts and finding more sponsors, Rivers said.
Money is always an issue.
The first week of January the team will have open walk-on tryouts for anyone interested.
“I’m really happy with the quality of our pitching, but we need more arms,” he said. “We have about eight pitchers right now; with our schedule it takes about 12 so we can always use more.”
Anyone interested in trying out can contact Rivers at baseball@cc.usu.edu or 770-6395.
-eds@cc.usu.edu