Club baseball swings and misses in tourney
The Utah State baseball club lost the two games it competed in last weekend while the third game was canceled.
The Aggies fell to Colorado Northwestern Community College 8-0 Thursday and 6-2 Friday. Saturday’s contest against the Salt Lake Community College Bruins was canceled due to an excessive amount of snow on the field.
All games were part of the tournament being hosted by SLCC.
CNCC and SLCC both have baseball teams receiving funding from their schools and are well into their seasons.
So Aggie Head Coach Ernie Rivers knew grabbing a victory wouldn’t be easy.
“Those were [CNCC’s] 20th and 21st games,” he said. “There’s just a few things we need to work on, but the next time we play them we should do really well.”
The damage in USU’s loss Thursday was completed early — CNCC drove in all eight runs through the first three innings.
The positive to this? The Aggies didn’t let in another run the remainder of the game.
“Our relief pitching gave up absolutely nothing,” Rivers said. “We just didn’t give [our starting pitcher] any run support.”
Through two innings Friday the score was tied at two before the Aggies faltered.
“There was just a little bit of tightness [and some] mental errors,” said USU third baseman Dan Gay, who was a combined 1 for 4 through the weekend. “They’re pitching was pretty good. We did well
defensively.”
USU’s runs came in the second inning as Paul Roundi drove in two runs on a single to midfield.
Though Saturday’s game was canceled, Gay said playing SLCC would have been a good experience since they are one of the best teams the Aggies will play this season.
“I was pretty bummed out about that,” Gay said. “It would have been a good experience to get another game in before our road trip.”
USU will leave Thursday at midnight to compete in the Central Oregon tournament where it will face Eastern Washington and Humbolt State on Saturday and Oregon Sunday.
The weather is forecasted as rainy with 50-degree temperatures throughout the weekend.
Rivers said he hopes it won’t deter Utah State’s performance.
“We’re used to the cold,” he said. “I think a lot of it is just being outside for the first time. I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
–samhis@cc.usu.edu