Delaying the game against Utah State only delayed the inevitable.
After the weather pushed the game back a day, Utah (19-23-1) beat the Aggies (8-36) 14-3 in Logan on Wednesday. Utah’s 14 runs were tied for their second-most scored in a game this season.
The Utes jumped on Utah State quickly, scoring two runs in the first and six in the third. The bats were swinging and connecting all throughout the day. Kristen Stewart, Jackie Sweet and Katelyn Elliot all hit home runs with Elliot’s being a grand slam.
“I was excited to get up because I was really feeling good at the plate,” Elliot said. “I watched the first couple of pitches go by for strikes, and they were just good pitches that I didn’t pull the trigger on. The next one that came in, I just hit it, and it felt good.”
Utah State did pick up eight hits, but Utah only allowed three runs in the bottom of the fifth, and by that time the Utes were up nine runs.
“Getting a bunch of hits, playing well as a team and getting three good performances out of our pitchers is always a good thing,” said head coach Amy Hogue.
The win was a break from a discouraging trend for the Utes.
“I think sometimes we play to the level of our competition, and [yesterday] we didn’t do that,” Hogue said. “We tend to play better against better teams, and to me the strongest teams in the country don’t do that. They play to their level, no matter who they’re facing. [Yesterday] we played our level of ball — that showed with the home runs and the extra bases that we got.”
Another benefit for the Utes was the return of Kayce Nieto, who hasn’t pitched since throwing a complete game against UCLA on April 7. Nieto pitched two scoreless innings for the Utes and earned her sixth win of the season. Mariah Ramirez pitched three innings and allowed three runs, while Naomi Amu closed the game with a scoreless inning.
“I think whenever you get pressure put on you, you perform a lot better or a lot worse,” Nieto said. “I think [yesterday] definitely shows we’re the team that when you put pressure on us, we’re going to perform better. We’ve got some games to win, and we’re going to go out and do our best to win those games.”
Utah has now scored in the double digits in two of the past three games, but those games were surrounded by two-run offensive snoozers for the Utes. If the Utes want to compete in the Pac-12, their bats need to find consistency.