Aggie baseball ends fall season on a low note, but with high hopes

The last time Jaxson Webb completed a season in an Aggie baseball uniform he was holding a World Series trophy. Now, back on the Utah State University club baseball team after two years away, Webb is having a much different experience.

The Aggies ended their 2016 fall season 2-8, the team’s worst record in years. But as the team heads into winter practice to prepare for the spring season, Webb and his teammates are nonetheless feeling confident they can recapture the qualities that made them champions in 2014.

Webb acknowledged ending the fall season feeling discouraged.

“It’s very hard not to compare this team to the last one,” Webb said. “That year we only lost two games and ended the season 12 and two. Two of the teams we lost to this year we had beaten every game that season, so yeah, it’s a little hard not to compare.”

Asencion Junior Gonzalez, one of the newest members on the team, agreed that the end of the season was discouraging. He nonetheless believes the team has a shot at turning things around.

“We have a lot of potential,” Gonzalez said. “The thing about potential though is you can have it but never reach it. What we need to do is really start putting in the work, showing up to practice more and not losing focus when we’re out there playing.”

That’s what team president Cole Stocker has been hoping to heard from his fellow players. He said the team’s record doesn’t reflect the purpose of fall ball.

“I feel like the fall season went well,” Stocker said. “We were able to evaluate everyone and get an idea what role everyone is going to play moving forward.”

Stocker said the reason the team might not have performed as well is because he and head coach Brad Singer decided to give everyone a chance to play during each game, moving players around to different positions to see where they performed the best. Because of this, Stocker said, sometimes players were in positions they weren’t used to.

With the Aggies currently at the start of winter practice, Stocker said the three things he plans to focus on are better team camaraderie, more commitment to practice and overall positivity. If he can help the team improve on those three aspects, he said, he sees no reason why they can’t make it back to the National Club Baseball Association Div. 1 College World Series, which the Aggies also won in 2012. 

“It’s tough to meet those things in the fall,” Stocker said. “So I’m not too worried that they will pick up in the spring.”