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Show StateSManSpOrtS Monday, March 29, 2010 Page 9 Tindall home run propels Aggies to first WAC win at La Tech By TYREL SKINNER staff writer USU's first WAC game found the Aggie softball team at a road game in Ruston, La. Last Friday, March 26, Utah State softball opened conference play with a three-game weekend against the Louisiana Tech's Lady Techsters. Utah State went 1-2 on the weekend. Utah State took an early lead in Friday's game when senior infielder Rachel Evans crossed the plate from an error on La. Tech's part, which also left senior outfielder Emily Reilly on first. Reilly added another point to Utah States' score when senior outfielder Nicole Rupp-Tindall crushed a ball to right field to give Tindall her second triple of the season. Tindall rounded out the scoring for the inning when freshman pitcher Kali Cancelosi hit an RBI, bringing Tindall home. NICOLE RUPP-TINDALL provided the late-inning heroics with the go-ahead home run in USU's first win in Western Athletic Conference play this season. PATRICK ODEN photo The Aggies led 3-0 at the end of the first inning. The Aggies scored their next point in the second inning, bumping them up to a 4-0 lead. Freshman infielder Tina Ferguson scored a run when she tagged up on a pop fly, making it to third. A throwing error by La. Tech's third baseman allowed Ferguson to complete her run to home. Both teams remained silent until the bottom of the sixth when the Lady Techsters got back in the game with three scores in that inning. The bottom of the seventh found them scoring in three more points, while the Aggies failed to score for the remainder of the game. Louisiana Tech won Friday's game with a score of 6-4. The teams started their next game on Saturday at noon. Utah State, again, jumped to the lead in the first inning when junior catcher Shasta Tyteca hit an RBI scoring in Tindall, giving the Aggies a 1-0 lead. La. Tech was quick to answer in the bottom of the first inning with a score that left the teams tied, 11. The Aggies were quick to regain the lead when redshirt freshman infielder Kelley Kanishero hit a single in the top of the second that scored in junior outfielder Joreigh Landers and loaded the bases. La. Tech walked freshman Kali Cancelosi which scored Tina Ferguson. The Aggies led at the end of the second with a score of 3-1. La. Tech started to rally in the third inning and, again, tied the score at 3-3. The Techsters had another great inning in the fourth when they scored in five runs and gained the lead for the first time in the game. La. Tech extended its lead even further with back-toback home runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Aggies scored in the top of the sixth when senior Tindall walked home with a bases-loaded walk. This was the last time the Aggies would score in the game, and they lost 10-4. USU finished off the weekend in the second game of Saturday's double-header. The Lady Techsters started off the scoring, 3-0, in the first inning with a home run that scored in two on-base runners. The Aggies were quick to answer in the second inning, with three RBIs in a row. The first was an RBI by junior outfielder Megan McDonald who scored in junior Shasta Tyteca. Freshman Tina Ferguson scored in Simone Hubbard, and sophomore in fielder Rachel Evans scored in Ferguson. This tied the Aggies up, again, at 3-3. Senior Kate Greenough's pitching kept the Lady Techsters batters at bay, and in the top of the ninth, Tindall hit a home run that gave the Aggies the lead. Greenough finished off the game with three consecutive outs to give the Lady Aggies their first win of the weekend with a score of 4-3 over La. Tech. The weekend left USU's record at 12-13 for the season and 1-2 to start off conference play. The softball team will keep busy this next week with two on-the-road double headers against Utah Valley on Tuesday and BYU on Wednesday. The Aggies will host their first home game of the season on Friday and Saturday when they play the Nevada Wolf Pack. — tgs@aggiemaiLusu.edu Baseball team takes two out of three over weekend By DAN FAWSON staff writer After a fall season that had them frustrated with their inconsistency at the plate, the Utah State club baseball team has been on an offensive tear throughout the beginning of the spring season. In their first home series of the season, the Aggies opened up conference play this past weekend, taking two out of three games against the Montana Grizzlies. The Aggies swept a Saturday afternoon doubleheader, picking up wins of 12-9 and 10-8 before falling 10-6 to the Grizzlies, Sunday morning. The three-game series pushed the Aggies overall record to 8-6 on the year, and continued the welcomed trend of getting offensive production from everyone in the lineup. "Everybody hit the ball really well. That was pretty much what kept us in the game(s)," pitcher and outfielder Ryan Doyle said of Saturday's wins. "They (Montana) were a really good team." Lead-off hitter and center fielder Brad Singer said, "Offensively we've been really good because of the new players we've gotten, and just the hard work that we've put in in practice. Now that it's gotten a little bit warmer, we've had a couple practices outside, and I think it's loosened us up a little bit and prepared us and gotten us ready to face good pitching." Third baseman Justin Vaneck, new to the team this spring, went 4-8 with two RBIs on Saturday, contributing to the Aggies' stellar all-around performance at the plate. Catcher Gavin Johnson continued his early season hot streak, going 4-6 with six RBIs and a home run. Doyle, an underrated hitter normally known more for his contributions on the mound, also went 4-6 in the two games, collecting four RBIs and a home run. He stressed, however, that as much as certain individual performances appeared to stand out, Saturday's wins were the result of a collective effort against a good Montana team. "Everybody was swinging the bats well," he said. "Their pitchers were pretty decent, but I think we're just coming around with our bats. The Aggies had 22 hits in the two games, and every positional starter reached base at least once. Jesse Kunz pitched a complete game and struck out five Grizzly batters to collect the win in the series opener, and newcomer Jeff Orme picked up the victory in the second game after taking the mound in the third inning in relief of starter Tyson Bowser. Singer, who went 5-7 with three RBIs and a home run, Saturday, said it was important for the team to start off conference play strong. "For us to come in here and take two of three from them puts us in a very good position," he said, noting the Grizzlies were coming off a threegame sweep of conference title contender Boise State. However, as strong as they were Saturday, the Aggies were denied a series sweep because of a sluggish Sunday performance. Doyle, the Aggies' ace on the mound for the past two years, worked through some uncharacteristic control issues, walking a number of Grizzly batters early on before settling down. He was also hurt by a surprising number of fielding errors from a normally reliable infield. "I think it was mostly unforced errors in the field," Singer said in trying to explain the loss. "Doyle was a little off— it wasn't his best stuff, today — but he did throw a lot of ground balls, and we made some plays, but there were some plays that cost us a lot." Doyle, who admitted he didn't pitch as well as he would have liked, said the team struggled in all three phases of the game. "I think we didn't come out ready to play," he said. "We won both games yesterday, and we hit the ball really well, and I think today we took that for granted and just thought we'd come out on the field and win. It seemed like we just weren't really ready to play." The Aggies will travel to Ogden for a three-game series Friday and Saturday against defending conference champion and perennial power Weber State. "Weber's been a thorn in the side my whole four years that I've played," Doyle said. "They've won the conference every year that I've been on the team." While they respect their in-state rivals in the south, the Aggies have been the Wildcats' toughest competition over the past few years, handing Weber its only loss of the conference season last spring, and playing the Wildcats very tough in the two teams final series last fall. "We're confident we can beat them," Doyle said. "We have a good team. They have a good team. It just depends on who pitches well and who fields well. 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