Jose Briseno, USU Eastern Athletics
Photo courtesy of Jeff Barrett
The Utah State University Eastern Eagles took the field for the first time since early February to take on the Colorado Northwestern Spartans. The series with the Spartans marks the beginning of conference play for the Eagles. Due to field conditions, the Eagles and Spartans moved the series to Salt Lake Community College.
The USU Eastern and CNCC split the two games on Friday, 8-12 and 11-0.
Eastern jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning as Vaughn Deming, Tyler Nelson and Ty Barker recorded RBIs to give the Eagles the early advantage. Davis Kirby singled, in the top of the second, to score Gavin Douglas to push Eastern’s lead to 5-0.
CNCC cut the Eastern lead to 5-1 after an RBI triple, but Dakari Armendariz drove in Deming to get Eastern their five run lead back.
The bottom of the third was kind to the Spartans as Colorado Northwestern scored four runs to pull within one run of the Eagles.
Eastern did their best to distance themselves from CNCC after Luke Erickson and Deming drove in a run each to give Eastern a 8-5 lead.
CNCC exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the fourth to claim a 12-8 lead.
Eastern and CNCC would go scoreless for the remainder of the game to finish 12-8 in favor of the Spartans.
Game two was all USU Eastern as Tyler Fitch dominated on the mound. Fitch tossed all seven innings in the 11-0 run-rule victory for Eastern. Fitch finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed just 4 baserunners (two hits and two walks).
Both teams struggled offensively in the first four innings. The Eagles finally broke through on an RBI triple by Tyler Nelson. Gavin Douglas singled shortly after to extend USUE’s lead to 2-0 after four innings. Douglas drove in another run in the sixth and then Seth Nate doubled to score Douglas and Nelson, giving Eastern a 5-0 lead. Nate then scored on an error by the Spartans.
Vaughn Deming hit a three-run home run in the top of the seventh to give Eastern a 9-0 lead. Douglas drove in Nelson to put the run-rule in effect and Mogle singled to score Douglas to provide the final run of the afternoon.
Vaughn Deming ended the day with six RBIs while Gavin Douglas added four hits on the day.
The Eagles will return to the field Saturday morning to conclude the series with CNCC. Games are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.