Second place in sight for baseball club
The game of baseball is all about having three chances. The Utah State University baseball club is hoping the third time is the charm in its quest to finish in the top two in its conference, Head Coach Ernie Rivers said.
The team is only in its third year of existence. During the Aggies’ first two years, they entered the Big Sky Conference in last place. This year they have a high probability of entering in second place, Rivers said.
“As long as we take two out of three wins from Boise State University we will go in as the No. 2 seed,” he said.
The Aggies will play the Broncos this weekend in Boise, Idaho.
“We expect to take all three from Boise. If we do anything less it will be disappointing,” Rivers said.
The Aggies took two out of three games from the Broncos the last time the two teams met, beating BSU 11-3 and 3-2 in Logan, while losing the final game 9-8.
“If we fulfill this [Boise wins] it will be up to the players to get to the next level,” Rivers said. “We are already a good team; all we have to do is get there.”
Right now the Aggies have a conference record of 8-4, which places them second behind Weber State University. The University of Idaho is in third place. Boise State currently stands in sixth.
The Big Sky Tournament will be held May 3 to 5 in Ogden at Linquist Field.
Last year when the Aggies went to the tournament as the last place team, they pulled off an upset. USU upset the No. 1 seed, Weber, who had taken first place for the past four years. They lost to the first place team by one point in the semifinals, and ended up placing third, one place short of qualifying for regionals.
“We have good team work,” team captain Jason Clark said. “We have better at-bats and pitching this year than last year. We should exceed what we did last year in the tournament.”
This year the team is hoping to get to the regional tournament. The top two teams in the Big Sky tournament will go to the regional tournament, held in Washington May 11 and 12.