USU baseball steals three games from Wildcats

The Utah State baseball team swept Weber State in a three-game home stand Friday and Saturday.

Utah State outscored the Wildcats 45-14 over the three games, winning all three by the 10-run mercy rule.

“We wanted to be aggressive and put pressure on them to make plays, make them beat us,” said Aggie head coach Brad Singer. “If they’re not (making plays), we’ll beat them.”

USU was aggressive running the bases all weekend, totaling 21 extra-base hits and 14 stolen bases.

“We wanted to do a lot of hit and runs, a lot of stealing, put the ball in play,” Singer said. “I kind of told the guys, ‘Hey, you’ve got the green light.’”

After the Wildcats took a lead on the Aggies in the fifth inning of the first game of the series, fifth-year pitcher Sixto Cabrera was brought in to lock them down. Singer praised his performance afterward.

“He’s been around the block. He knows what’s going on, and I have a lot of confidence in Sixto,” Singer said.

“He’s a veteran on the team. He’s a leader, and he just has really great stuff,” said outfielder Eric Stranski.

The Aggies allowed seven runs in the five innings before Cabrera was brought in. They only allowed four in the last 14 innings of the series. First baseman Gus Baskin credited the defensive performance to the entire pitching staff.

“When they’re on the mound, you know they’re going to throw strikes. You know they’re going to be throwing hard and not giving guys free bases,” Baskin said.

Colton Draney had 11 strikeouts in the game he pitched Saturday. Despite leading the team, the pitcher said he isn’t concerned with getting strikeouts.

“I don’t worry about striking people out. I’m out there to do my job, which is to get outs,” Draney said. “I still have enough confidence in the eight other guys out there that they’ll make the play for me.”

The head coach was impressed with the performance of his pitchers against Weber State.

“That’s why I have the pitching staff that I do have,” Singer said. “To be able to, you know, put them in, insert them, and have the confidence in them to get the job done.”

Utah State now goes on the road to play Boise State on Saturday and Sunday.

“I think they’ll be hard-fought games. Boise State’s a good team,” said infielder Easton Walker. “I don’t think we’ll 10-run them three times in a row.”

The players expect it to be a much more difficult series than the three-game stretch against Weber. However due to the current winning streak, the team is confidently moving forward.

“I think it gives us a lot of confidence,” Baskin said. “I think it gives us a good boost and good momentum to push us into the next little bit.”

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tomcat340