“We have to get better. It’s really that simple,” Rasmussen said succinctly when asked what he learned about his team on the heels of dropping two straight to the Bearcats.

After taking an 11-1 drubbing to Cincinnati on Monday, Tuesday’s game, which was attended by a bevy of grade school kids, showed a more competitive Wolverine team which led the game until what proved to be a tough seventh inning. Leading 2-1 through six Utah Valley allowed four Bearcats to touch home plate to fall behind 5-2.

It was the type of pitching during that particular inning that has been relatively uncommon for a staff that has carried UVU to its current 10-9 mark on the season according to Rasmussen.

“Our pitchers have done a great job for (19) games this season so far. We just have to figure out how to get better offensively,” he said. “We only gave up six runs today, and we have to find a way to get better (offensively) if we’re going to beat a team like this. We’re 10-9 now and there’s not a player in that locker room that is happy about that.”

The Wolverines did have their moments from the plate, which included an RBI single from Chipper Beck in the second inning and certainly a towering homerun hit by Hunter Katschke in the seventh, but those efforts were too far and in between.

“We’ve got to get better on the barrel if we’re going to compete like we believe we can,” Rasmussen reemphasized. “There’s a lot of expectations with this program after what we did last year and now we have to make sure we can get better so we can play to a level to beat a quality team like Cincinnati.”

Last season saw the Wolverines make national news on the heels of defeating Oregon in the NCAA regional round. Although Rasmussen’s team didn’t end up progressing out of the round-robin first round play, the win showed what his program is capable of.

“It was great for our program and certainly lifted everyone’s expectations of what this program can accomplish,” Rasmussen said. “We’ve returned a lot of players off that team, and what it brings is more expectations. We need to turn the page and get better to meet those expectations, but it’s cool to have a program that’s expected now to beat a team like Cincinnati when they come and visit. We have great support from the community and the players really feel that now.”

Leading the way of top players returning for the Wolverines is senior pitcher Cooper Littledike, who leads a pitching staff that has been the best part of Rasmussen’s team on the early season.

“Cooper is probably the best leader I’ve been around,” he said. “His approach and his attention to detail is great, and him and some other pitchers have really taken the reins, but we’re still looking for leaders from the position players.”

Utah Valley will now take to the road to take on a tough Stanford team for a four-game series before returning home to take on Cal State Bernardino for a three-game set.

“We need to get better and progress as a program we’re going to have to do a lot better things than we showed over the last two days, and hopefully we can find that on the road,” Rasmussen concluded.