USUE Press Release
USU Eastern baseball lost its final home series 3-1 against Salt Lake Community College on Friday and Saturday.
The Eagles had to play from behind in each of the four games because of the big innings at the plate the Bruins would produce.
“We knew going in we would have to play flawless baseball in order to beat this good SLCC team. It was a very competitive weekend that both teams did a good job of working through tough situations,” said USU Eastern head coach Scott Madsen. “With a team like SLCC, we can’t give up runs early in the game and be able to come back to win; their pitching staff is to good for that.”
USU Eastern was able to come back in game one and win off a walk of single by sophomore Steven Ortiz in the bottom of the seventh. With the score 9-7 in the bottom of the seventh, Cole Fossat hit a solo home run to bring the Eagles within one of SLCC. After the home run, Jarrett Hunt and TJ Bender got on base for the Eagles to set up the game winning two RBI single by Ortiz.
In game two, the Eagles ran out of gas and lost 12-9 in nine innings.
Along with the cold weather and the wind, the Eagles had to deal with depth issues due to illness in the bullpen.
On Friday, the Eagles only used five pitchers total between the two games.
“Going into the weekend series, we had a few situations arise that really affected us as a team. We had a couple of pitchers test positive for influenza and were not able to pitch at all. This forced us to ride the other pitchers longer than we wanted to conserve pitching,” said Madsen.
On Saturday, the Eagles lost game three 7-3 and game four 14-2.
Despite not being able to pick up another win on Saturday, Madsen said that he was proud of his team for giving it all they had despite illnesses and weather.
“We just ran out of steam at the end of the series. =Our players gave everything they had and things just didn’t go our way. I am proud of the toughness these young men showed all weekend long,” said Madsen.
Sophomore Jesse Rowley had a good weekend for the Eagles at the plate with five hits, four RBIs, two runs and a home run. Fossat hit another home run in the first inning of game four on Saturday. He currently is second on the team in home runs with four, only one home run behind Rowley for the team lead.
The Eagles now have a 20-20 overall record and a 12-11 record in conference. They will now hit the road the next two weekends to wrap up their regular season schedule.
“As we prepare for the upcoming weekend, we are focused on getting healthy and back to 100% physically. We will also focus on getting back in the swing of things and playing together as a team,” said Madsen.
USU Eastern will head down to Henderson to take on the College of Southern Nevada, a team the Eagles split with at home last month and is ahead of the Eagles in the standing by a game.
Streaming information of the series at CSN will be made available later this week.
Note: “We are asking for help in finding any information that may help us find the individual responsible for breaking into the college baseball field buildings and stealing various items. This happened late Wednesday April 11 night or early April 12 morning. They stole many items that can be replaced, however they also took many items that are not of high value. These items include many signed baseballs from past teams that played here at USU Eastern. We would also let everyone know to lock up any valuable items as there is a thief on the loose in the area. We are currently looking into a few leads, but would appreciate any help you may have,” – Scott Madsen, USU Eastern Head Baseball Coach