Utah State softball wins two of three games in final home series
Utah State University softball finished the season by taking two of three games from San Diego State and winning its second series since beginning Mountain West conference play.
Although the Aggies finish one win shy of 2018’s total number of wins with a 17-30 record, the team ends the year with a better winning percentage than the previous campaign — all with an extraordinarily young roster.
Freshman pitcher Kapri Toone was one of the standouts of the weekend, commanding the game on the mound for the Aggies. She pitched in all three games, starting two, and gave up just four runs in 15.2 innings. Toone faced her share of struggles early in the season but finished by winning three of five games and was a key contributor to the Aggies pulling out four wins in six games to end the year.
Toone held the lead for Utah State until the fifth inning Friday afternoon, and her teammates at the plate stepped up to finish the job and grab a 4-3 win over the Aztecs. It was a scoreless contest until the fourth inning, both teams getting just a few hits off the starting pitchers but not doing any serious damage.
With the bases loaded, senior first baseman Bailee Trapp slapped a rocket through the right side of the defense, sophomore center fielder Stephanie Reed scored, and runners advanced to second and third. Next up to the plate was fellow senior, Bailey Lewis. She took advantage of runners in scoring position and smacked a sac-fly to deep leftfield which drove in freshman second baseman Kenzie Bolin.
With Utah State up 2-0 heading into the fifth, San Diego State quickly responded by putting two runs of its own on the board to tie things up. The tie wouldn’t last long, though, and the next inning the two seniors got on base again and put runners in scoring position for junior third baseman Erin Kuba to knock home. Utah State would give up one run to the Aztecs in the seventh, but Toone closed out the game and her team capture the win.
Friday was an offensive explosion from Utah State, getting 11 hits in a 7-6 win. Both teams took no time putting runs on the board, and Utah State found itself with a 6-3 lead after just two innings. On the day, Lewis was exceptional at the plate. She went went three-for-three with a walk and two RBI’s and drove in what would prove to be the winning run in the fourth inning, sending junior outfielder Riley Plogger home.
Plogger also had a great day offensively, and she led the Aggies with two runs scored and two walks in her four plate appearances.
Between the two games that Utah State won, the team hit .320 — far above its season average of .275.
Hitting was a strength in the first two games but figured to be the team’s biggest weakness in the final game of the series. Utah State had just three hits for the game and weren’t able to capitalize on a day when Toone pitched seven innings with four strikeouts and two runs given up. The Aggies were the first to strike in the third inning with a Plogger double that sent Reed home. But the Aztecs swung the game in the sixth with a two-run homer, putting Utah State down for the remainder of the game.
The Aggies finish the season three games out of last-place in the Mountain West standings, but head coach Steve Johnson believed that his team showed a lot more than its record indicates.
“Obviously the record didn’t turn out the way we wanted to, but the kids kept fighting and all the way down to end,” he said. “Coming out and getting two big victories on Thursday and Friday — and even today — battled all day. Just to see the fight all the way to the end, hopefully it sends us off into the summer on a high-note.”
A real positive for Utah State is the amount of production the team got throughout the season from its underclassmen. Out of all players who played at least 35 games, four of its top eight hitters were freshmen or sophomores. The most exciting of the four may be Orozco. She led the team in hits, batting average, RBI’s and her 13 home runs broke a single-season Utah State record. Its pitching staff struggled throughout the season and finished second to last in ERA in the Mountain West. But all three pitchers the team used are underclassmen and have a great opportunity to improve with a full offseason under their belts heading into 2020.
Twitter: @dren_sports