Really tough to gauge where they are at this point. Utah Valley is usually a bottom feeder in the WAC.

Santa Clara is kind of in the same boat as UCD. Both teams have a lot of really talented student athletes, but both really can't seem to get to .500 or over because they unfortunately have to play teams in their own conferences, which they struggle mightily with. UCD will occasionally beat UOP, Saint Mary's, USF in a mid-week game but those are not usually contenders in the WCC. UCD typically doesn't play the likes of BYU, San Diego, Gonzaga or Pepperdine but one series every few years. That conference is stronger than it looks.

Having said that last year's team would likely be 0-6 right now. Definitely a lot more depth this year.

Supposed to play @ Cal tomorrow, I'm looking out the window from the East Bay...I don't think that's happening.

Followed by a trip to Seattle they might just have the whole week off.

As expected, the game scheduled for today at Cal has been postponed. The Ags are now scheduled to head to Seattle for 3 games beginning Friday. I wouldn't be surprised if those get washed out too.

Friday/Saturday showing middling rain throughout both days, Seattle on Sunday looking clear at the moment. Guessing Seattle has an artificial field.

The Ags lost the first of their 3 games at Seattle 11-1. That bats were silent for the Aggies who only managed 3 hits and they had 4 errors also.

Nate Freeman was actually pretty good on the mound. He gave up 4 runs in 6 2/3 IP but two of them were unearned. The bullpen is where the meltdown really was. Glad to see Nick Iverson make a return, as I believe he missed the Santa Clara series. Unfortunately now Damian Stone, the left fielder, may now be injured. He exited last Saturday's second game

They returned the favor today with an 11-1 win. Bryan Green picked up his third win in as many tries, and every Aggie in the starting lineup had at least 1 hit. Freshman shortstop Joey Wright had a big day with 4 hits, including a homerun (his first I think). Catcher Jack Gallagher hit one as well-his third I believe. Gallagher transferred in from Santa Rosa Junior College, a top program in CA. I believe the Aggies lost a top recruit to them (Joe Lampe) a few years ago.

Gallagher is having an interesting season so far. I looked at the team staistics and he has only 4 hits, which consist of a double and three homeruns. So right now he's not getting many hits, but when he does hit the ball he crushes it.

I haven't had a chance to see a game this year yet, but judging from the box scores it appears that Nicholson is doing a good job of sticking to his plan while balancing that with getting the freshmen playing time. Lineup changes seem to be motivated by injuries (Iverson, Stone ?) and not knee-jerk reactions to minor slumps. I see Woolridge, Kang, and Helfrick getting significant playing time in the outfield right now-all of them are freshmen. The competition for playing time next year will be very intense. Meanwhile, Joey Wright is the shortstop, another freshman. This will be a very experienced roster next year.

Nicholson is doing a good job of sticking to his plan while balancing that with getting the freshmen playing time. — AggieFinn2

I've been impressed with what Nicholson has done with the program so far. I think he could build a really good baseball program here but it will take some time.

Sac State's website says the Monday game against the Aggies has been cancelled and the 4/11 game has been moved back to Sacramento.

My guess is that the hornets determined they were spreading themselves too thin. Had they kept the Monday game they would have been playing on 6 straight days- Thursday vs. Nevada, Friday-Sunday in L.A., Monday + Tuesday against UCD) followed by 1 day off then a 4-game series Thursday through Saturday against Central Michigan. They actually had a game scheduled for Wed against USF too, so that would have been ten straight days had they not also re-scheduled that. Even minor league baseball teams have a day off every week.

What can I say-even if the players all had slacker majors (I have no personal knowledge of this, so I'm not calling them slackers) they still would need to go to class sometime, right ? Wonder why they didn't catch this when they scheduled the extra game ?

The Aggies took the series today with a 4-2 win in the rubber match.

The Aggies wrapped up the Seattle series with a 4-2 win over the Redhawks. Nick Leehey (at third base) was the big hitter today with a double, homerun, and three runs batted in.

Rowen Barnes pitched well as the starter, striking out 5 in 3 1/3 innings pitched and allowing just 1 run. According to the press release after his last start Barnes is working his way back from an injury so they are placing tighter restrictions on how many pitches he can throw right now. Kaden Riccomini and Avery Thau pitched well in relief. Alejandro Huezo had a very un-Huezo like day striking out just one in his two innings.

A strange coincidence-both teams had someone named K. Hogan pitching at the end of the game (Kian Hogan for Seattle and Kaden Hogan for UCD).

Somehow Barnes got credited with the win even though he left the game in the 4th. They must have applied that rule where the starting pitcher can go less than 5 and still win if it is a controlled start where they state how many pitches he will throw at the very beginning. Somehow the game tracker listed Barnes' record as 1-1 despite the fact that the Aggies won the only other game he pitched this year. Either he's 1-0 or they credited the win to the wrong pitcher. My guess is they looked at Avery Thau's record (0-1) and mistakenly thought it was Barnes'

Riccomini seems to be thriving in the bullpen. They needed him to be a starter last year with the lack of depth the team had. Under normal circumstances he should have been the winning pitcher today, as he completed the 5th inning.

Kaden Hogan continues to be an intriguing player. He was starting at shortstop for Long Beach State as a freshman, then transferred to UCD by way of Sierra College, sat out last year, and apparently now is the Aggies' closer out of the bullpen-while still making starts at third base periodically. Since this is probably his last year of college baseball (JR in eligibilty, but his 5th year of college) he looks to be going out as that utility guy who can do anything. If anyone plays all 9 positions in a game this year it will be Hogan.

Also, of note, with a 5-4 record this is the first time they have had a winning record since they were 9-7 at the end of the 2020 season. With 1 more win they will have as many as they had all of last year. Unfortunately they have tough teams Sac State and ASU ahead of them so that winning record may not endure long.

Sac State actually only has 1 more win than UCD at this point. They were swept on the road this weekend although I don't know if losing 3 games to 3 different teams really counts as a sweep.

Regarding the scheduling: I wonder if the teams scheduled this game some time last week just in case weekend games got rained out. Once it became apparent the weekend games would be played, they could cancel the Monday game.

Have a family relative involved in high school baseball in the Sacramento area. He says they are scrambling to play games. Even if the skies cooperate the ground is still too wet.

Sac website reporting that Tuesday's game has been moved to Sac due to unplayable field conditions at Davis.
https://hornetsports.com/news/2023/3/6/baseball-field-conditions-in-davis-force-change-of-venue-for-baseball.aspx

Wow, the field must really be a mess if they know the day before it won't be playable.

They scheduled it for 4pm, which really helps no one who might want to attend-not likely going to be well-attended. Sac State schedules 4 pm frequently Feb. and March according to the schedule. I'm guessing this is to prepare for a potential rain delay. If they tell everyone to be there for a game at 4 on a Tuesday and there's rain they can wait a bit and try to play later, but if they make the original time 6 and you have a delay there's less flexibility. But for weekend games it makes no sense because if your Friday evening game is rained out you can just try to play an earlier doubleheader the next day.

Is the @ Sac game happening?

TIed at 5 in the middle of the 5th.

It's been stuck on the Gametracker for awhile now.

There we go. 9-6 Sac bottom 7th. Why on Earth did they just take Wolbert out of the game ?

9-6 win for Sac. Pretty sloppy game for UCD. The only pitcher who didn't surrender a run was Max Hippensteel. Great game for him-6 up 6 down to finish the game.

This has been going on for years now w/Sac State. They can't win these SpringTraining-like games using a bunch of different pitchers. They need consistency to beat good tesms + you don't get that changing pitchers all the time-too many variables.

On the plus side Nicholson got work for several pitchers without using his better relievers (Carrion, Huezo, and Hogan). James Williams and Nick Leehey had multiple hits. Nick Iverson was back in the lineup and drove in two runs. Damian Stone got an at-bat, so hopefully he's close to returning to the outfield.

And there goes the winning record

Aggies lose their first game at Arizona State 7-1.

You don't win too many games with only 4 hits.

On the plus side freshman outfielder Braydon Wooldridge had two hits and Carter Delaney threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing only 2 hits and a walk. He redshirted as a freshman at Pomona-Pitzer, a D-III school if I'm not mistaken. Looks like the Sagehens really struck out by letting him get away. Baseball pun intended.

UCD lost 6-4 to ASU. I don't think they've ever beaten the Sun Devils in their D-I history but they have had a few close games (including 2 in 2016 where they blew 9th inning leads) and this was another.

Bryan Green wasn't his usual dominant self on the mound, but he gutted out 5 innings to keep them in the game, including three shutout innings after he surrendered 3 runs in the first despite the fact he only registered only one strikeout. Joey Wright hit his second homerun.

Another positive: Damian Stone was back in the starting lineup in left field. He brings a lot of speed, something this team doesn't have in spades. Kind of odd that a guy that fast plays left field. That's usually where you stick your big slugger who doesn't play first base (Joc Pederson anyone ?) and doesn't have much speed.

Another couple of things I noticed. Apparently Theo Forshey isn't the first baseman for now. He started ice cold with the bat this year so Leehey has been there the last couple games. Leehey would start somewhere everyday regardless because of his defensive versatility and hitting ability. Hopefully Theo can get the hitting going soon. This is a player who was originally with UCSB, so if he was even able to sit in the Gaucho dugout in recent years he's better than your average JC transfer. To be fair quite a few players aren't really hitting. Call it early season adjustment or cold weather. Even Mark Wolbert's only hitting .275, which is underachieving for him.

Wolbert started the year in center field but is now in right field, while Ethan Kang has been getting more time in center field. Since Kang is not hitting particularly well I wonder if this means that he is proving to be a more reliable defender in center .I think Raul Sandoval, not Wolbert, played center primarily last year. I don't know-I haven't been to any games this year. Something about a 10 am Saturday doubleheader in cold weather doesn't agree with me. I'm not 19 anymore.

ASU is probably the best team they've played so far, so not getting blown out in either of these games is something.

The Aggies got pounded by ASU today 17-4. The Sun Devils had 20 hits and had 10.

There were some good individual performances. Jack Gallagher and Leighton Helfrick (1st career) both hit homeruns. Alex Gouveia had two hits, including a double.

Braydon Wooldridge contributed on both sides, going 1 for 4 and throwing scoreless inning of relief. According to the roster he is both a pitcher and outfielder, so this seems more than just a mop-up appearance at the end of the game..

Gallagher continues his feast-or-famine hitting. He has five hits total-1 double and 4 homeruns.

Tuesday's game at Santa Clara was cancelled.

It's just as well. The Broncos don't currently have a home field, as their ballpark is undergoing some extensive renovations. They have been playing at either Mission College (a JC) or a local HS. Not much of a trip.

Santa Clara has a really nice and modern ballpark as it is but they're getting a new playing surface, seats, and other things. And we don't have lights. The rich get richer.

They're not the only WCC school with stadium renovations taking place. Louis Guisto Field is also undergoing improvements. The difference is that the installation of sests there apparently does not prevent games from being played, just no spectators. So the Aggies may be playing in front of nobody when they visit on 4/4.

So now our next games start conference play with 3 home games vs CSUN. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 2 pm.

What is the story on the No Lights situation? I thought it was high on Rockos to,do list?

I haven't heard anything but I think the whole hazing business became something of a financial setback for the university. I'm certain the university had to offer Nicholson a significantly higher salary than Vaughn to get him to come over. That hazing investigation was probably quite expensive too.

Getting away from the financial implications I think the program is still in a probationary period. I think we'll see lights only if Nicholson can turn it around. If not, would they see the merit in investing more money ?

And probably the softball field would also then need lights per title IX? So yes, a bit more complex than it looks. I do think that lights would help recruiting a lot.