Baseball set to take on Colorado
After finding success last week against foes from the Rocky Mountain Conference, the Utah State University baseball club invites the University of Colorado Buffaloes to Logan to play four weekend games.
The Aggies will look to continue its solid play over the last couple of weeks when they open the four-game series Friday night at 8 p.m. Play will continue Saturday at 11 a.m. with a doubleheader, and wrap up Sunday at 10 a.m. with a single game.
All four games will be played in Providence.
Colorado, which finished 11-10 last season, will be playing its first games of the fall season.
The Aggies will use this game to continue to evaluate talent and shake the rust off from the off-season, said Aggie Head Coach Ernie Rivers.
“The next two or three weeks we’ll continue to play quite a few guys,” he said. “We will then continue to fine tune and see who our projected starters will be for the spring.”
The job will not be easy as many new Aggie players have stepped up for the team when given the opportunity.
Second baseman and club vice president Adam Hislop said Bill Kleintopp has been one of those Aggies who has challenged for playing time.
The Aggies didn’t have a catcher coming into the season, but Kleintopp, who is a freshman, has stepped in and filled the void. Last weekend, he threw out 6 of 8 runners trying to steal, and started all four games.
Another reason for the early Aggie success has been the return of many of the position players.
“All of the core players that came back from last year have improved,” Hislop said. “I think there’s been a lot of progress.”
The probable pitchers for the Aggies this weekend are Brock Yancey, Tommy Poppleton, Sean Maynard and Sean Morrissey, in that order, Rivers said. Poppleton, Maynard and Morrissey all pitched last weekend and Yancey pitched the first game of the fall season.
“We are trying to establish some starters, and we think we’ve got a couple,” Rivers said.
Hislop said, “We have new pitchers that can come out and throw.”
Even though the team is certain it has shown improvement from last season, the players and coaches are quick to point out this is only fall baseball and the real challenge comes in the spring.
The first thing on the agenda, however, is a balanced team coming from Colorado to play four games.
“We knew we had a solid team, but I think we have the ability to be a really good team,” Rivers said.
-jwhigg@cc.usu.edu