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Show StatesmanSports Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 Page 9 Aggies play well, but can’t beat Weber St. By DAN FAWSON staff writer Friday: Game 1 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 basesloaded 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 USU SECOND BASEMAN BRADY SAYAMA warms up during the Aggies practice at Providence Field. Utah State lost to rival Weber State four straight times over the weekend. TODD JONES photo 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,” Alamari 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 Sweep: Volleyball off to great start Split: Ags rebound after Friday loss -continued from page 8 finished the match with a season-high .440 (43-10-75) hitting percentage while limiting the Citadel to a .030 (19-17-66). Day two of the tournament was once again dominated by McArthur who racked up a match-high 15 kills against Wyoming and a career-high 23 kills against Northern Arizona. McArthur hit a .270 (15-5-37) against Wyoming and a .386 (23-6-44) against Northern Arizona. USU’s command over the first set continued Saturday against the Cowgirls of Wyoming and the NAU Lumberjacks. The Aggies are undefeated in the first set of each match this season for a perfect 9-0. After the first-set routing of the Cowgirls, Wyoming came back strong, taking the lead from the Aggies early in the second set and not allowing USU to regain control. The Aggies made a valiant comeback effort with the score at 22-14 when USU went on a 6-0 run to close the Cowgirl lead to 22-20. The Cowgirls, however, held on for a 25-22 second-set win. The third and fourth sets were tight right up until the end where both ended with the -continued from page 8 Aggies up 25-23. USU won the first two sets against tournament host Northern Arizona 25-18 and 25-16 with hitting percentages of .355 and .400, respectively. The third sets’ percentage dropped dramatically to .121 while the Lumberjacks tallied up a .333 hitting percentage. USU had nine errors in its 25-18 third set loss. The team cut its errors in half, finishing the fourth and final set with 15 kills and four errors in 39 attempts for a .282 hitting percentage in the 25-19 win. The Aggies won the tournament taking nine out of the 11 sets they played. Their record is now 6-3 with three matches left before conference play begins in two weeks. The 6-3 record is the Aggies’ best record to start the season since the 2003 Aggies won six of their first nine matches. Also, the four straight match wins is the longest winning streak since 2007 when the team won six in a row. This, weekend USU heads to its next tournament in Kent, Ohio, where the Ags will face off against Butler, Kent State and Robert Morris at the Kent State Mizuno Open. Cairns also said the biggest reason for the Aggies success was that the girls played hard the entire 90 minutes, which is never easy on the road. She said the girls stayed connected, and mounted an overwhelming offensive attack, outshooting the Huskies,16-7. “It was good to bounce back with a win today since we didn’t have our best performance on Friday night,” Cairns said. “We wanted to improve today and the girls responded very well to that challenge.” The Aggies were able to quickly take the lead in the game after sophomore forward Shantel Flanary was taken out from behind by a Houston defender. The play resulted in a penalty kick, which Flanary successfully scored off of in the fifth minute of play. Flanary appeared again shortly thereafter, placing a cross into the Huskies’ box to give sophomore forward Ellen Larsen a goal, all before the first 10 minutes of play were through. The second half opened with yet another goal by Flanary, who fired a shot from 30 yards out into the top corner of the net in the 46th minute of play. The Huskies made an effort to get back into the game with a goal by junior midfielder Isla Cameron, but that would be all their offense could put forth. The Aggies would have two more goals before the game ended. One by sophomore forward Danielle Shorts in the 83rd minute, and the other by junior forward Stefani Shiozaki in the 85th minute. “Our midfield did very well today connecting with our forwards,” Flanary said. “(The game) helped us see that we can score in multiple ways, and that we’re capable of finishing a game to the very end.” Flanary and the rest of her teammates can use their efforts of this game as a much needed morale boost. The season is still far from over, and the Aggies now must focus on their next game against the University of Washington Huskies, who earlier on Sunday pulled a surprising upset against No. 11 Illinois. “It will be a good challenge for us this weekend,” Flanary said. “It’s going to be tough, but it’s always a great opportunity to play against one of the top 100 teams in the nation.” –la.hem@aggiemail.usu.edu, –steven.crass@ aggiemail.usu.edu |