By Cory McKendrick, USU Eastern Sports Information Contributor:
Spring is upon us and for baseball fans, this is the most exciting time of year. The snow is melting, the weather is warming up and the outside air will soon be filled with the sounds of the crack of the bat and the ball popping the catcher’s glove. For now, the Utah State University Eastern baseball team practices indoors and travels south for warm weather to play preseason games.
With one weekend already in the books, the Eagles sit at a 1-3 record heading into week two of the spring preseason. The team played two ranked teams in the first weekend of action. #17 Arizona Western College and #1 Central Arizona College. The lone win on the weekend came against Gateway Community College.
The team has 14 sophomores and 16 freshmen for the 2020 spring season. Returning offensive standout sophomores include Dylan Sanchez, Dylan Rodriguez and Hunter Lasko. Sanchez batted a team leading .333 last season. Rodriguez hit .310 with 5 doubles, 10 RBI and 7 stolen bases. Lasko hit .325 with 5 doubles, 10 RBI and 1 HR.
Lasko commented that “this season is going to change the way the Eagles are viewed in the SWAC. To pave the way for the program in years to come.”
The Eagles also return two standout pitchers as well. Karter Pope and Hayden Brock will return to help lead the pitching staff for the 2020 spring season. The pair struck out 33 opposing hitters in a combined 77 innings of work.
First year players on the radar to look out for this season are Utility players Kaden Kunz and Ethan Udy. Outfielder Dawson Hall and pitchers Kaden Stewart, Kade Hancock and Maxwell Nichols. Each have already started their 2020 campaign in a big way, contributing to the early success of the Eagles.
First year Head Coach Kirk Haney showed his excitement for his inaugural season at the helm when he said, “I’m very excited to see what this team does this season. The players have been bought in from day one this fall. We have a very strong returning sophomore group that started in the majority of games last season as well as a freshman class coming in ready to contribute to our success. As a coaching staff, we feel that we have the depth to do well this year in the always difficult SWAC conference.
As for the preseason, USU Eastern will travel to play Cochise College, then they will play two weekends of home games against Dawson Community College and the Utah State University club team. They will then begin conference and play in this order: Colorado Northwestern Community College, Salt Lake Community College, College of Southern Nevada and College of Southern Idaho.