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Baseball club primed for championship run

The Utah State baseball team is ready to make a second-consecutive run at the national championship.

The club won a national title in 2012 in addition to the victory last season.

“Every game we start feeling more and more confident about it,” said first baseman Riley Stauffer. “That is the goal right now.”

First-year head coach Brad Singer knew this team had the potential to be special before the season started.

“I told them at the beginning of the year, ‘If you guys come together as a team, you gel and mesh well with one another, you will make it to the World Series,’” Singer said. “I’m very confident in that statement.”

The team is coming off a weekend in which it swept Boise State — the No. 2 team in the conference — and extended its winning streak to 15 games. The team needs three more wins over the next six games to clinch the conference and guarantee a return trip to the regional tournament.

The winner of the regional tournament, held in Missoula, Montana, advances to the World Series in Kentucky.

“When we go to regionals, it’s one of those things where we’ve got to step up our game and be ready to go,” said catcher Colton Anderson. “We can’t take it lightly.”

The team understands that it has a great chance to win the national title again if it can make it through regionals, Singer said.

“I think they’re starting to realize that and starting to catch that vision that we’re trying to paint for them,” Singer said.

The players on the team are confident that they will repeat the process from last year.

“We know we can play with them,” Anderson said. “We know we can beat those guys.”

Much of the confidence the team has in itself stems from its strong pitching staff.

“With our pitchers holding them like they do,” Stauffer said, “we’re always in a great position to win.”

Cody McGlocklin, one of the pitchers and third baseman on the team, agrees with Stauffer.

“In my opinion,” McGlocklin said, “we have probably one of the best pitching staffs in the nation.”

The coaching staff will continue to encourage the players to focus on the fundamentals, Singer said.

“If we play clean baseball, our pitchers will do their thing, our batters will do their thing and we’ll have the sparks that we need,” Singer said. “With the depth that this team has I’m pretty confident that we can make a deep run at it.”

Utah State plays its final home series Friday and Saturday against Idaho State with games beginning at 6 p.m. and 12 p.m. respectively.

The regional tournament runs from May 7 to May 10 and the World Series is May 22 to May 28.

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tomcat340