USU club baseball hits road after solid start in conference
A 3-0 start to conference play is satisfying, but the Utah State baseball club knows a 6-0 start would be even better.
The Aggies will travel to the University of Idaho (2-8 overall, 0-6 in Western Mountain Conference play) for a four-game series this weekend, with only three games counting toward WMC play, said USU Head Coach Ernie Rivers.
Boise State gave the Aggies a visit last weekend, but was slammed in all three games by solid USU hitting (collecting 34 runs) and pitching (giving up nine).
This isn’t to mention USU first baseman Mark Larsen’s six home runs and 14 RBIs in the three games, including a 7-for-12 performance at the plate.
That performance gave him the National Club Baseball Association Player of the Week honor.
Yes, things are going right for the Aggies (9-9, 3-0) right now.
“School’s coming to an end, we’ve got everybody at practice,” Larsen said. “Everyone’s arms are in shape [and] everyone’s seeing a lot of pitches. So I think we’re just going on all cylinders right now.”
The Aggies purposely scheduled better teams to open up the year, which has been a major factor in their latest success, Rivers said.
“Our goal was to play some real tough games to start out the season, and then go into conference with a full head of steam,” he said. “We knew our first eight to 10 games were going to be tough. We were going to play a lot of junior colleges and we were going to use wood bats. But we set that up on purpose.
“We didn’t have any home runs before we switched to metal, and now I think our team’s got 25 home runs,” he said.
Larsen agreed.
“The experience factor when you play junior college scholarship teams is great,” he said. “We see great pitching. We play with wood bats, so we really [have to] concentrate on being good hitters. When we play club ball we go back to hitting with metal bats.
“It’s a huge difference, so we really try to perfect our swing as well as we can with the wood bat because you really have to hit the ball square with the wood bat,” he said. “Going to metal you have a little bit more room for mistakes.”
The Aggies are currently second place in WMC standings, but sit closely behind in-state nemesis Weber State (9-9, 3-0).
-samhis@cc.usu.edu