By: Cory McKendrick, USU Eastern Sports Information Contributor:
Price, UT – Though the 2020 season ended abruptly, there were still many excellent take-aways from the first season with Coach Kirk Haney at the helm. The Eagles finished the pandemic shortened season at 11-9, while playing three top 15 teams and one other ranked team in their first 2 weeks of preseason.
The season was stopped short right after the first conference weekend from Colosimo-Carlson field. The Eagles took on the Spartans of Colorado Northwestern Community College and ended up splitting the series 2 games to 2.
In the short season we would like to mention some of the top performers. Cooper Ohlson led the way in batting average for the Eagles with a .500 batting average in 39 plate appearances. Dylan Sanchez followed closely at .429 in 75 plate appearances. Ryder Peterson also was in the 400’s at .415 in 60 plate appearances.
As for power numbers, Sanchez led the way with 7 doubles, followed by Ethan Udy with 6 and Ohlson with 4. Peterson led the way in the homerun category with 4. Dawsen Hall had 2 along with E. Udy.
Peterson had an astounding 25 RBI’s in the 20 games played. Sanchez had 18, E. Udy had 14 and Hall had 13. Hall had a few other outstanding stats for the season as well. He was able to score 28 runs, while hitting in the 3rd spot in the lineup and reaching base safely 41 times. Hall’s ability to score over 50% of the time he was on base was largely attributed by his 15 stolen bases, which led the team in that category.
Karter Pope was 3-1 on the season with a 4.18 ERA and struck out 30 opponents. Connor Udy paced the Eagles in strikeouts with 33. The staff as a whole significantly lowered its ERA from the previous season.
The offense averaged 8 runs per game and scored more runs in 20 games than they did in the previous season. Coach Haney commented on his team’s success, “8 runs per game was something I was very proud of as a coach and I was excited to see the team accomplish.”
“This group, through all this adversity worked very hard in everything they did including putting the work in off the field to be successful. We had a strong sophomore class with freshman ready to come in and do their part. In my first season coaching I couldn’t have asked for anything better than this group of players.”
The NJCAA granted all players their year of eligibility back and this will be an exciting recruiting class for the Eagles. “As we look to the next season, we are working to come back even stronger with many of our sophomores coming back for a third year of school as well as our returning freshman having had experience at the college level for a half of a season. We will be looking to add a few more pieces to our team in recruiting, but have high hopes for where we will be for the 2021 season” said Haney.