Baseball team wins 2 WSU tourney
The Utah State baseball team’s offense bounced back from last weekend’s slump but a close game and costly errors lost two games for the team over the weekend at the Weber State Tournament.
Tyler Al-Imari hit his fifth home run of the season and Gil Hollingsworth had two home runs over the weekend to help the Aggies win two games against Colorado Northwestern Community College and the University of Montana.
In game one on Friday, the Aggies had the lead going into the bottom of the seventh against Weber State. Zack Hancock walked, with the bases loaded and then walked in a run to make it 7-6, Utah State. A Weber State single scored two and gave the Wildcats the win 8-7.
“Any time we score seven or more runs we should win the game,” head coach Brett Al-Imari said. “Weber just had the last at-bat.”
Some parents complained about questionable ball and strike calls in the bottom of the seventh that went against the Aggies.
In game two on Saturday morning, pitcher Greg Ladd had another good outing as he pitched a two-hit shutout against CNCC, a varsity program.
One hit was a ball that went off Ladd’s leg and bounced far enough away that he couldn’t throw the runner out. The other was a fading fly ball that fell just out of the reach of a diving Justin Johnson in right field.
Ladd struck out 12 over his seven innings of work to get the shutout.
Hollingsworth hit a solo home run to put the Aggies up in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was all they would need for a win, but the Aggies added two more in the fifth inning and another one in the sixth to win the game 4-0 against Colorado.
In game three, the Aggies committed six errors in the 7-2 loss to the University of Montana. The Ags bounced back to win game four against the same University of Montana team 16-5.
“I don’t think we have ever beat Montana as bad as we did this weekend,” assistant coach Ernie Rivers said.
Hollingsworth had a grand slam and two doubles in game four and finished the weekend with six RBIs and three runs scored.
Al-Imari said that although 2-2 for the weekend wasn’t bad, the Aggies could have done better.
“If we play our game, and play to the talent level that we have, there is no reason why we don’t walk out of this weekend 4-0,” Al-Imari said.
This weekend the baseball team travels to Boise to play in a tournament with several Oregon schools.
-krn@cc.usu.edu