The defending conference champion Weber State Wildcats needed extra innings to defeat Utah State in a season opener highlighted by dominant pitching and spectacular defense.
With seven scoreless innings already in the books, Wildcat catcher Alberto Parea led off the eighth inning with a hard hit single to left field. Shortstop Kort Christofferesen followed with single down the third base line past a diving Brad Singer, and as the ball died in left field, Parea pushed for third. Parea beat the throw in from left field, and when Brad Singer’s attempt to catch Christofferesen going to second got by second baseman Brady Sayama, Parea scooted home to give the Wildcats the first run of the game.
An RBI infield single later in the inning put Weber State ahead 2-0, and the Aggies were unable to mount a final charge in the bottom of the eighth. The wild final inning overshadowed an often-times dominating pitching performance from Aggie ace Ryan Doyle.
Doyle shutdown the Wildcats in the seven innings leading up to the eighth, not allowing a Weber State hitter to reach base in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings.
“Time and time again everybody asks me about Ryan Doyle, and he’s just consistent,” Aggie head coach Brett Al-amari said. “You know you get solid pitching every time he goes out there.”
“I just kept them off balance, I think,” said Doyle when asked about his success on the mound, saying he tried to work ahead of hitters with the fastball and mix in some off-speed pitches.
The highlight of the game for Utah State came in the seventh inning from center fielder Dallin Christensen, a newcomer to the team. After Weber State’s Nate Miller led off the inning with a triple, Christensen caught a fly-ball on the next at-bat and threw out the tagging Miller at home.
“That was a great play,” Al-amari said. “I thought they were going to score a run there for sure. He came up and made a good catch and a phenomenal throw.”
Friday: Game 2
In the second game of a Friday night double-header, Utah State once again came up agonizingly short against the Wildcats.
Trailing 5-4 in the seventh and final inning, an Aggie rally fizzled out when Cody Ferguson was thrown out at home plate and Ryan Doyle hit a pop-fly to deep center field to end the game.
After being shutout by the Wildcats in game one, third baseman Brad Singer highlighted a resurgent Aggie offense. Singer gave the Aggies their first runs of the fall season when his bases-loaded triple knotted the score at 3-3 in the fourth inning.
“The biggest thing with Brad is he stays in every single at-bat and he hits mistakes,” Al-amari said. “You can’t mess up and leave a pitch up in the zone for him to hit, because he’s going to hit it and he’s going to hit hard.”
The Wildcats quickly responded in the top of the fifth inning with two runs, regaining a 5-3 lead. The Aggies scored the last run of the game in the bottom half of the fifth when Ferguson scored on a sacrifice fly from Doyle.
Al-amari was disappointed opening the fall season with two losses, but praised the Wildcats’ performance and believes his team will improve with time.
“Their pitchers threw pretty well,” Al-amari said. “We swung at a lot of bad pitches. We have to get comfortable. Everybody’s seen live pitching but until you get a bunch of at-bats under your belt it’s going to be a little shaky.”
Weber State’s Brandon Noyes started the scoring in the first inning with an RBI single, and an Aggie throwing error later in the first gave the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. Noyes had another RBI single in the third inning.
Saturday: Game 1
On a sweltering summer afternoon the Utah State bats were never able to catch fire.
In the first game of an afternoon double-header, the Aggies managed only two hits while committing five fielding errors en route to a 13-1 loss to Weber State. The Aggies gave up 11 runs in the first four innings while only being able to counter with a solo home run from shortstop Zack Gunn.
Gunn’s solo shot in the second inning was the Aggies first of the fall season, and the only bright spot in an otherwise lackluster performance.
“We came out of the gates a little lacking, a little sluggish,” Al-amari said of his team’s performance.
Signs of life appeared to be coming from the Aggie side when, trailing 8-1 in the third inning, Gunn came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. Zack ripped a grounder down the first base line, but a spectacular diving grab by Wildcat first baseman Nate Miller put an end to the Aggie rally, and effectively seized momentum for the Wildcats for the rest of the game.
Hoping to improve hitting going into the spring season, the weekend series saw both teams opt for wooden bats in place of the metal ones commonly used in college baseball. Noting it was the first time many of his hitters have ever used wooden bats, Al-amari said the players seemed a little timid at the plate, which might explain some of the offensive futility.
Gunn agreed with his coach, saying the switch in bats was a big adjustment and that the power of the Wildcat pitchers also caught the team off guard.
Commenting on his homer, Gunn said Weber State’s pitchers were throwing a lot of fastballs, and he knew he needed to sit back and be patient.
“I just pretty much sat back and tried to stay loose and throw my hands,” Gunn said.
Saturday: Game 2
With a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth inning, Weber State caught fire at the plate and seized control of the fourth and final game of its weekend series with Utah State.
Wildcat first baseman Chris Abbott led off the sixth with a solo home run to deep right field, opening the floodgates for a seven run inning that saw 12 Wildcat batters come to the plate. Weber State tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning to come away with a 12-2 victory.
Al-amari said the combination of his tiring pitchers and a few costly errors in the field led to the Wildcats’ big inning.
“They started putting the bat on the ball a little bit more,” he said. “We made a few costly mistakes in the field and things just added up and they added up fast.”
The final score overshadows what had been a very hotly contested game through the first five innings.
Coming off the bat of shortstop Zack Gunn, a two-run double in the first inning put the Aggies up 2-0, giving them their first lead of the four-game series.
Weber State quickly answered back in the second inning, knotting the score up with a two-run double of its own. A sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning gave the Wildcats the lead, and the score remained the same until their sixth inning explosion.
Gunn’s performance at the plate was the unquestioned highlight of the Aggies Saturday double-header. He drove in all three Aggie runs during the two games.
“Zack has the ability to be the best hitter in this conference,” Al-amari said. “He’s just a natural baseball player, and he always wants to get better.”
Gunn was disappointed with the loss, but stressed the Aggies are not that far behind the defending conference champion Wildcats.
“My hope is that we practice a lot over the fall and next spring and get some guys some at-bats,” Gunn said.
He said added experience and the return of some key players for spring ball will have the Aggies playing better.
“I think we can definitely hang with these guys,” Gunn said, “because we were right there.”
–majerusforpresident@yahoo.com