USU Eastern sweeps Utah Elite, Colorado NW
The Eastern men’s baseball team took four games from this past week’s action. The Golden Eagles first faced Utah Elite, a Utah scout team ran by a former USU Eastern baseball assistant. Eastern proved to be no match for Utah Elite as they dominated on offense and defense. In the first game, starting pitcher Joe Barta paced Eastern defensively. Barta worked out of a jam in the first inning, and then threw five strong innings. In his five innings of work he struck out eight. The offense was led by freshman Cory Mckendrick who had two doubles in the game. Eastern won 7-1.
This archived article was written by: KC Smurthwaite
The Eastern men’s baseball team took four games from this past week’s action. The Golden Eagles first faced Utah Elite, a Utah scout team ran by a former USU Eastern baseball assistant. Eastern proved to be no match for Utah Elite as they dominated on offense and defense. In the first game, starting pitcher Joe Barta paced Eastern defensively. Barta worked out of a jam in the first inning, and then threw five strong innings. In his five innings of work he struck out eight. The offense was led by freshman Cory Mckendrick who had two doubles in the game. Eastern won 7-1.
In the second game the Golden Eagles lit up the scoreboard early with five runs in the first inning. Every Eastern hitter had at least one hit in the second game against Utah Elite. The game quickly turned into a scoring contest for Eastern as they won 19-8. The Golden Eagles defense was shaky in the 7th inning as they gave up four runs via errors. Starting pitcher Skyler Thorpe threw five innings and struck out seven.
The Golden Eagles then took their talents on the road for a two game series against Colorado Northwestern on Saturday. Pitcher Kort Christoffersen was dominant as he struck out six in three innings of work, and surrendered no hits against the Spartans. Colorado NW took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, but the Eastern offense answered back. The Eastern assault started with a solo home run by Matt Gochis. Cory Mckendrick and Kyle King followed with singles, and Chance Abrath, Mason “Big Nasty,” Moore drew walks all in the same inning. The Golden Eagles scored four runs and never let the Spartans back in it. USU Eastern took the game 5-2.
In the last game of the week the boys from Price took an early 5-0 lead, and never looked back. Starting pitcher Tory Ulibarri kept the Colorado offense silent as Golden Eagle hitters Brandon Wilson (3 hits) and Chance Abrath (2 hits) wrecked havoc on Spartan pitchers. The defense was solid until the last inning where the Golden Eagle defense had 3 errors in the last inning that led to four Spartan runs. Eastern won the game 10-5. Coach Madsen commented “ our team showed maturity throughout this past week, we cut down on walks, and our hitters stepped up when they needed to.
Eastern improved to 7-3 on their fall season which will conclude today against Salt Lake CC played in Orem. The spring season starts Jan. 28 against Utah State University.
