Baseball winds up for fall season
It wasn’t the start a team vying for the national title in the spring needed, as the baseball club team fell 13-9 in an alumni game in providence.
“I’m really frustrated with … [the] game,” head coach Brett Al-Amari said. “We’ve practiced for over a week now, and come out against the alumni, who, we should beat because there are two guys over there who even picked up a bat in the last three or four months.
“We expected pretty much to take it to em. But we came out flat today.”
Since its conception in 1999, the baseball team has come a long way from its first 1-17 season with only 14 players.
“We totally have plans,” Al-Amari, who was a two-time pre-season All-American while playing baseball at Bellevue University and Midland College, said. “Our ultimate goal is a national title. We aren’t going to mess around saying … we want to play well in our conference. We’re definitely going out there to win the national title.”
Players on the team, like last year’s 1st team All-American Tyler Al-Amari, feel like the team has a pretty good shot at its goals. Tyler said he feels the team needs to stay focused to win.
“We have a lot of really good ball players out here, and I know when we’re focused we’ll be able to win pretty much every game we play,” he said.
As the fall season starts for the team, Brett said the team is just going to work as hard as possible, practicing every night for a couple of hours.
“I think we’ll know where we’re going to end up [in the spring] after this fall is over,” he said.
Tyler added that the fall season will be good because it will “make sure everybody knows what they are doing on the field. Getting all the problems out for spring so we’ll be ready to go.”
Despite the lapse during the game against the alumni, the team is looking like its’ ready for the challenge of the upcoming season.
Brett said the returners for the team include Tyler, along with Ryan Palmer, a transfer from Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon, who will be playing third base. Brett said that he’s looking to Palmer to be a solid player for the team.
Brett is looking to Greg Ladd, formerly of the University of Nebraska, to be the ace pitcher for the season. Fourth-year returner Justin Johnson is another player Brett will look towards to lead the team.
“I expect big things out of all these guys,” Brett said. “They can all play. They probably shouldn’t be here playing club ball, but we’re glad to have them.”
This weekend Wyoming will be coming to Utah to take on the Aggies.
“They’ve always had a pretty solid team, ever since their scholarship program got cut,” Brett said.
The game against Wyoming will start off the pre-season for the Aggies.
“Right now, we have 24 games scheduled,” Brett said. “We’ve got Wyoming coming in … [then] Colorado and Colorado State will be tough in two weeks.”
After hosting Wyoming and Colorado, Brett said the team is going to be taking a couple trips.
“We’ve got an intense schedule,” he said.
He also said Colorado, playing the Ags on Sept. 25 and 26, and Colorado State, playing the Ags on Oct. 2 in Colorado, will be big games.
Last season, Colorado State won the national title.
For Tyler, and the other members of the team, in-state rival Weber State will be a big game.
“They’re so close,” he said. “That’s how it was when I got here. I guess the tradition continues.
“We’ve got a lot of good players. I’m looking forward to the season.”
The Aggies play all their home games at Zollinger Park in Providence (100 N. 200 West), and are looking for support.
“We want as many people in the stands as possible,” Brett said. “It would be great to get students out here.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu
(Photo by Jessica Alexander)