USU drops two to BYU; Despite a five-run inning, Ag can’t stop Cougars
The Aggies dropped another two games in their disappointing season in their first April matchup in Logan on Tuesday. Utah State lost both games of their doubleheader against Brigham Young University.
BYU (30-14, 8-2) scored 10 runs in the first two innings of the day and held on to shut out the Aggies (5-32, 0-8) 10-0 after just five innings.
“I think the first game, those first couple innings hurt us a little bit,” coach Lonny Sargent said. “[Pitcher Leslie Higley] hung in there and shut them out the rest of the way.
“That’s a huge positive for her to be able to do that because we could have been down 15 or 20 to nothing by the fifth inning and she didn’t allow that to happen.”
As the first game ended, a heavy snow began to fall, but cleared up in time for the second game to start about 30 minutes late.
Utah State rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the second game to take a 6-5 lead in a five-run fifth inning, but ultimately lost to the Cougars 9-6.
“I think the second game we just came out pumped because we know we can beat that team,” pitcher Heather Straight said.
Utah State took their only lead of the afternoon on a double by Jeanine Hernandez which sent Tara Evans home for the score in the Aggies’ big fifth inning. Runners were left on second and third bases as two Aggie players grounded out to end the inning.
BYU took the lead back quickly as they recorded three hits and two runs in the top of the sixth inning and nailed down the victory on a homerun double over the centerfield fence in the seventh inning by Jodi Norton.
“That hurt,” Straight said. “I think BYU wanted to win just as bad as we did. That girl can hit just about anything, so I think they pushed just as hard as we did.”
“We tell our kids if we can keep it in the park, we’ll be OK,” Sargent said. “They’re just so good that you just never know. Any of their kids can hit it out of there.”
Utah State will next face San Jose State Friday at 3 p.m. and will play them twice more the following day starting at noon. The games will be played at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field in Logan.
“We’re expecting that we can compete with them and beat them,” Sargent said. “We’re trying to get our first WAC win and all those things to get that monkey off our back.”
The Aggies have now lost 10 games in a row, dating back to an 11-7 win against BYU in Provo on April 4.
-benwalker@cc.usu.edu