USU club baseball team upsets top seed, advances in College World Series

GEORGIA–The Utah State Aggies were facing the hosts of the College World Series and the number one team in the country in the Georgia Bulldogs, all while going up against Georgia Bulldog ace pitcher Michael Elliot and a raucous Bulldog crowd.  Easy night for Georgia right?  Na-ah.  Utah State shocked the baseball country not only upsetting Georgia but shutting them out 3-0 behind the masterful pitching of Robert Garrett along with some stellar Aggie defense.  The Aggies will take their 2-0 record to Tuesday, and await the winner of an elimination game between Texas Tech and Georgia.  

      Garrett had it going his way pitching a complete game giving up five hits, allowing no walks and striking out four. Though his total pitch count was in the high 80s by the mid eighth, USU coach Norm Doyle chose to let Garrett finish it out and with the way the Aggie defense played, why not?  In the fourth inning a line drive deflected off of Robert’s foot and took a bounce towards third baseman Sixto Cabrera who made a spectacular play bare-handing it and throwing for the out at first to end the inning.  

In the sixth it was the shortstop Brady Zimmerman who decided to take the spotlight. With two runners on and only one out, Brady made a diving snag on a hard hit line drive and doubled up the runner at second.  It took a couple innings for the Aggie bats to come alive, but once they did there was not much Elliot could do.  

Jake Bartholomew had a two RBIs highlighted by a triple and Jeff Schiffman had the other one.  In all, Elliot was roughed up, surrendering five hits, three earned runs, giving up three walks and striking out four in six innings of work.  Schiffman was fighting off illness suffering from exhaustion and dehydration just one night before.  

He took three IV’s and rested as much as he could, but when it came to a National Championship being on the line, no one was going to keep the catcher from taking his rightful spot behind home plate and as a pitcher Robert could not have been happier to work with him as the one-two punch frustrated one Georgia batter after the other with a sweeping curve ball mixed in with a fastball that painted pretty on the outside corner leaving Georgia batters frozen.  

The Aggies will play Tuesday at 1:15 MST and the game can be heard on <a href=”http://www.clubbaseball.com” target=”_blank”>www.clubbaseball.com</a>. Go to the World Series Live Coverage link to hear if Utah State can take one step closer for 15 college kids in realizing a dream.

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