Photo by Jeff Barrett
By Jose Briseno, USU Eastern Athletics
The Utah State University Eastern Eagles welcomed the Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Bruins in their home season finale on Friday. The Eagles entered the series just two games behind the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) Golden Eagles for third place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference standings.
Game one was a one-sided affair in favor of the Bruins as Eastern fell victim to a 13-1 defeat. SLCC scored a run in each of the first four innings before combining for nine runs in the final two frames to take the win.
Few positives were seen in the game for USU Eastern, but Conner Bancroft performed well at the plate, tallying two of the four Eastern hits. Creed Mogle recorded the lone RBI on a sacrifice fly, scoring Bancroft.
The second game of the doubleheader had a similar start to that of the first. Salt Lake scored three runs in the first before Eastern answered in the bottom of the third. Dakari Armendariz knocked an RBI single to score Ty Barker. SLCC held a 3-1 lead after three innings.
The Bruins added another two runs in the top of the fifth to extend their lead to four runs, 5-1. However, the Eagles refused to quit, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth. Bancroft delivered a two-run home run before Vaughn Deming made it back-to-back homers, cutting the SLCC lead to 5-4.
Eastern held the Bruins scoreless in the top of the ninth before Tyler Nelson singled home the game-tying run in the bottom half of the inning. The Eagles earned the 6-5 walk-off win on an Armendariz single, scoring Davis Kirby.
“We needed to win these games to inch us closer to securing a spot in the conference tournament,” said head coach Kirk Haney. “We have separated ourselves from the five-seed but are still a few wins away from clinching. Tomorrow’s games are huge because we have a chance to jump into the three seed as well.”
With the win, Eastern moves to 15-23 on the season and 11-15 in conference play. The Eagles currently sit in fourth place in the SWAC standings, one game behind CSI and six games ahead of Colorado Northwestern Community College.