Photo by Jeff Barrett
By Jose Briseno, USU Eastern Athletics
On Monday, the Utah State University Eastern Eagles played their fifth and sixth games in four days against the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) Golden Eagles. Eastern opened with a 5-1 win but fell 13-12 in the second of the day.
Game one began with a quick two-run Eastern lead after Davis Kirby and Luke Erickson each drove in a run. Kirby hit an RBI double to right, scoring Mack Bright, and Erickson singled to score Kirby. Vaughn Deming and Kaden Davis each contributed an RBI single to extend Eastern’s lead to 4-0 in the second inning. Deming’s single to left scored Deavin Lopez and Davis’ drove in Kirby.
Southern Idaho attempted a comeback, but managed just one run, and a Lopez RBI single gave Eastern a 5-1 lead after the top of the seventh. Wayland Crane got the start and the win on the mound for the Eagles. Crane went four innings and allowed just one run on four hits. Crane also recorded four strikeouts.
Troy Connell came in the game to finish the final three innings and struck out four hitters while allowing a hit. USU Eastern combined for 13 hits in the game with four different hitters having multiple hits. Five different Eagles had an RBI in the game.
The second game of the day was a back-and-forth affair that was played until the final pitch. Eastern and CSI each scored in the first inning to keep things knotted after one. Kaden Davis provided an RBI single for the Eagles.
The Eagles rallied for five runs in the top of the second and three in the top of the third to take a commanding 9-1 lead after the top of the third. CSI scored two in the bottom of the inning to cut the game to 9-3.
The fourth inning was kind to CSI as the Golden Eagles saw seven runs cross the plate as they took a 10-9 lead. In the sixth, Dakari Armendariz and Deavin Lopez provided RBI singles to push three runs across the plate and Eastern retook the lead 12-0. CSI scored a run in the sixth and two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win the game 13-12.
“I thought our bats played well today,” said head coach Kirk Haney. “These games are big ones, and eight games in five days is a lot, but our guys came out and competed well. We just came up a little short in the last game.”