Davis, Calif. — Opening day of the college baseball season is always a special time of the year, and even more so when you can experience that in front of your home crowd.
With a new and revamped lineup, nerves and jitters seemed to play a factor for the Aggies today as they dropped to 0-1 in the young 2023 season, losing to Utah Valley, 8-1.
While not result Tommy Nicholson or any of the 500+ Aggie fans in attendance hoped for, UC Davis will still have a chance to seek revenge with three more games scheduled over the next two days against the Wolverines.
Starting on the bump for the Aggies, Nate Freeman gave UC Davis 4.2 innings of work. Although he goes down as the games losing pitcher, Freeman was pretty electric. Known throughout is career as a ground-ball pitcher and using his sinking fastball to generate outs, Freeman recorded a six straight strikeouts to start the game and finished with a career-high eight strikeouts, breaking his previous high of seven. Freeman would in fact start the game recording eight consecutive outs before the Wolverines would adjust and open the game with two runs in the top of the third.
After Freeman turned the ball over to the bullpen, Davis struggled to find that elusive third out, as Utah Valley scored all eight of their runs today with two outs in the third, fifth, and ninth innings.
On the offensive side of the ball for UC Davis, it was Mark Wolbert collecting the first hit of the year for the Ags. Finding himself subject to defensive shifts all game in a attempt to keep the reigning Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year off the base-paths, Wolbert used the opposite side of the field for a pair of hits the finish the day going 2-4.
Although a quiet day offensively with only four Aggie hits in total, UC Davis saw contributions from Nick Leehey (1-4), and Damian Stone (1-3) who gets his first career Division 1 hit. Davis recorded their lone run after Nick Iverson put a jolt into a ball that carried deep to left field, and ultimately was dropped by the left fielder.
UP NEXT
Bryan Green is set to toe the rubber for UC Davis in the first game of a double-header, starting at 11 A.M. Avery Thau will be called upon as the starter for the second game, which is scheduled to take place at 2:30 P.M. Video coverage for tomorrow will only be provided for the second leg of the double-header with the usual Greg Wong and Bob Dunning on the call for ESPN+.
