By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:

PRICE – Baseball lost their four-game series to the College of Southern Idaho on Friday and Saturday on the road.

Before making the trip up north, USU Eastern Head Coach Scott Madsen knew his team was in for a challenge.

“We knew going into this weekend that it was going to be tough. CSI plays extremely well on their field and continued that this weekend,” said Madsen.

The Eagles lost game one 4-1 and game two 8-1 on Friday afternoon.

In both games on Friday the Eagles gave up at least three runs in the first inning.

Even though his team was playing from behind most of the weekend, Coach Madsen felt like his pitching performed well working around errors.

“They gave us a chance in every game,” said Madsen. “CSI hitters had some key hits at the right time to score runs.  We had to go to the bullpen early on a couple of games and the relievers that came in were ready and did a good job of keeping us in the game.”

On Saturday, the Eagles lost game three 7-5 and game four 4-2 to give CSI the sweep.

Sophomore Collin Wilson had a solid weekend in outfield and batting at the plate for USU Eastern. In the four games against CSI, he had three hits, a run and a stolen base.

Sophomore pitcher Jarod Lessar had another good performance on the mound in game one according to Madsen. Lessar pitched six innings with five strikeouts and gave up six hits against CSI.

The series in Twin Falls concludes the team’s regular season schedule and will have a bye this upcoming weekend.

Madsen said that this week will be key to helping his team get ready for the region tournament next weekend.

“We are excited to get the region tournament going,” said Madsen. The team is playing well and is looking forward to see what they can do. As we prepare this week, we will be trying get some injured players healthy and get everyone back to full strength.”

Baseball currently sits in fourth place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference standings with a 14-17 record.

Their overall record this season is 22-27, an eight-game improvement from last season’s record.

Dates and times for the 2018 Region XVIII Tournament will be released next week after the conclusion of the regular season.