Baseball club drops three at home

Reuben Wadsworth

The 10-run rule wasn’t good to the Utah State University baseball club over the weekend.

The Aggies fell victim to it twice in a doubleheader Friday night, losing to Boise State University by 14-2, then 14-1 at Providence Field. Saturday afternoon’s game at the Smithfield Blue Sox field was a little better as USU fell 7-2.

In each game, the fourth inning was good to the Aggies.

In the fourth inning of the first game Friday, Aggie Brady Broderick hit in Rich Hansen and later Jason Clark hit Brett Thompson home. During the fourth inning of the second game, Hansen batted in Mike Sasser.

In Saturday’s fourth inning, down 6-0 with two outs, Thompson and Broderick both reached base on singles, then Clark stepped up to the plate and hit a looper that lingered high and long but fell between the third baseman and left fielder and scored both runners.

Clark said he was surprised his hit dropped because he felt he didn’t hit it well.

Head Coach Ernie Rivers said his team’s weakness over the weekend was hitting.

“We just didn’t string hits together,” he said.

The Aggies can hit the ball well in practice, Rivers said, but lately the games have been a different story.

“Defensively, we’re better than average,” he said.

According to Rivers, some days the team competes well, but other days it doesn’t. He said he doesn’t have an answer as to why the team is so streaky.

But Clark is optimistic.

“We’ve started to come together,” Clark said.

The club will next see action in a tripleheader against the University of Montana in Missoula this weekend.