Baseball club opens season against rival Wildcats
Fresh off its first winning season in the short four-year history of the program, the Utah State University baseball club is ready to lace up its cleats again.
Looking to improve upon last season’s 11-9 record, the Aggies will open the season with a game against Weber State University in Ogden Friday at 7 p.m., and then they will return home to play a double header against Weber State on Saturday in Providence starting at 11 a.m.
Utah State will face off against a Weber State team which took third in the National Club Baseball Association a year ago.
These teams faced each other five times last year, with USU winning two of the five meetings. With a new season though, Utah State is looking to fare better against its in-state foe.
“The difference [in the games against Weber] is going to be pitching. I think that we can both hit and we are returning most of our starters,” said Adam Hislop, shortstop/second baseman and club vice president.
Utah State has 12 players returning from last year’s team – three pitchers and six position starters – who finished second in their conference tournament and third in their regional tournament in Washington.
Returning pitcher Brock Yancey will be on the mound Friday to get the Aggies started, while College of Eastern Utah transfer Tommy Poppleton will start the first game of the double header Saturday. The starter for the second game of the double header has yet to be decided.
Hislop said he believes that because Weber State lost some of their starters, the young players might not be ready to step up and fill the void that was left. This could be the opening Utah State needs to improve this season in the standings of the Western Mountain Conference, he said.
Head Coach Ernie Rivers, who is in his second year with the club, is looking for improvement from his pitching staff this season.
“Pitching-wise we really struggled last year,” Rivers said. “[But] we’ve got a decent team, so we will see what happens.”
Rivers said that with the addition of some key transfers, his pitching staff should be better than the low rankings the staff received last year.
Last season, USU had the No. 1 offense in the nation among club teams, and the Aggies are looking to repeat that performance again this season.
“We are going to play a lot of new guys and they will have the opportunity to prove us right or to prove us wrong,” Rivers said.
Hislop said, “We’re definitely going to get better. There’s a lot more commitment right now. We’ve made it more of an issue. I think that we will be better than Weber this year.”
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