USU Eastern Baseball Opens Home Schedule with Sweep

USU Eastern baseball coach Scott Madsen talks to his infield and pitcher in a 2017 regular season game. (Photo Credit: Tyson Chappell)
Utah State Eastern baseball opened their 2018 conference schedule with a four-game series sweep of the Colorado Northwest Spartans last weekend.
With the weather playing a factor the series had to be switched from a road series in Rangely, Colorado to a home series in Price.
The series moved up to Thursday but because of a snow fall they played the four-game series over a three day span.
Despite the conditions and timing, USU Eastern Head Coach Scott Madsen said that the four-game sweep was huge for his team to begin their conference schedule.
“Its probably the most important weekend, conference season is so quick and in this conference you can’t have a bad weekend,” said Madsen.
Leading the charge at the plate for the Eagles was sophomore outfielder Jesse Rowley. He hit an impressive .500 in the weekend series with seven hits, six RBIs, two home runs, two doubles and three stolen bases.
“He saw the ball really well and had some key hits that got the runs in for us,” said Madsen.
Overall as a team, the Eagles had 28 hits, 32 runs scored, 7 doubles, and 29 RBIs in the series against CNCC.
Rowley said that his team’s batting performance came down to execution and bringing guys home when the opportunities came.
“I thought we did really well, obviously we hit better than we did at the start of last year. We executed well when we had guys on base in scoring position,” said Rowley.
Freshman Chandler Barkdull had a great home debut for the Eagles against CNCC. He hit .429 with six hits, six runs and a home run.
Picking up wins on the mound for the Eagles against CNCC was sophomores Jarod Lessar, Chase Stratton, Lionel Colon and Jarrett Hunt.
The Eagles will hit the road this week to take on Salt Lake Community College in West Jordan. 
According to Rowley the Eagles will need to continue to do what they did well in the series against the Spartans to be successful against SLCC.
“We got to just keep our walk lows and we got to execute when we have runners in scoring position,” said Rowley.
Last season the Eagles went 1-7 against Salt Lake including being swept on the road.
The four-game series against SLCC will begin on Saturday at 1 p.m.