Baseball team continues with fall ball
USU Eastern’s baseball team is not only working hard to become a better team on the field, but off the field as well. On Sept.17 they helped put up the Price City Wave Pool cover. The cover helps protect the pool from the winter weather, keeping it warm and clean. The team does it to volunteer and help the community.
This archived article was written by: Dillon Manzanares
USU Eastern’s baseball team is not only working hard to become a better team on the field, but off the field as well. On Sept.17 they helped put up the Price City Wave Pool cover. The cover helps protect the pool from the winter weather, keeping it warm and clean. The team does it to volunteer and help the community.
On the field, the Golden Eagles are not doing too bad. They traveled to Logan to play USU’s club team twice. They lost the first match 10 to 8. The Eagles hurt themselves with errors near the end of the game, which is usual for a young team, especially this early in the season. However, in the second game, the results were different. USU Eastern pulled out the victory 17-7. Overall, the team played well in that game. The only thing that can be touched up with that game is the consistency of a few players. Other than that, Head Coach Scott Madsen was pleased. Pitching is huge on any baseball team, and it is definitely no different on the Golden Eagles. Sophomore Chance Abrath has been pitching very well for the eagles. “When [the pitchers] have good weekends, we have great weekends,” said Madsen. As far as hitting goes, Denver Hansen is hitting well along with Tayson Wilson, a transfer from a school in Texas. Wilson is hitting around .500 so far in this season.
The team does have some areas that they need to work on, just like every other team at this point. USU Eastern needs to come together as a team. Some of the players seem to be playing for themselves so far. If they can all come together and worry about playing for the team, that would help drastically.
Pitching is above average at this point. The team’s hitting is not too shabby either, but fielding is what the Golden Eagles are best at right now. “We’ve got one of the best middle infields that we’ve had,” stated Madsen.
Final cuts are yet to be made, and usually take place in the first part of November. Madsen wants the players to continue to compete at the highest level possible until the cuts. Some of the problems in the previous years are that the players will work hard to make the team, and then once they are on the team they seem to be satisfied. That should not be the case this year. The squad currently has 38 players, as the cuts should take the team down to around 28 to 30, although only 24 will dress and be available for each game.
As far as big hits are concerned, Denver Hansen has hit one out along with Kye Raymond. Over this recent weekend, the Golden Eagles hit two in the park homers to make it four so far on this season. Madsen talked about how the power of the team will come along as the season progresses. Usually at this point, the players are still getting into the “swing” of things and it will take awhile for the players to begin hitting at their peak, as far as the number of hits they get, and the distant their hits will travel. Abrath, who is recovering from knee surgery over the summer, has pop in his swing. Jonathon Santiago, a Puerto Rican player, has a lot of power as well.
The next game for the Eagles will take place this Saturday Sept. 22 against a Colorado All-Star team. It will take place in Price at USU Eastern’s home field on 1100 East and 900 North. The following Friday they will host Salt Lake Community College before traveling to Grand Junction to take on the Colorado All-Star team once again.
Be looking forward to many improvements on this year’s team. The talent on this squad is plenty, it just seems to be a matter of if they can eventually put it all together and show it on game day. Be excited about this year’s Golden Eagle baseball team.
