Hendrickson Yanked In Win
Steve Farrington and Kevin Eastman have at least one thing in common. Each prefers to yank Mark Hendrickson after three fouls.
Eastman, Washington State’s first-year basketball coach, was among the 624 who braved wind, cold and a few rain drops Wednesday night to watch Hendrickson, an all-Pacific-10 Conference forward, make his college pitching debut at Bailey Field.
And Farrington, the Cougars’ first-year baseball coach, made sure Eastman didn’t have to stay around too long if didn’t want to by pulling Hendrickson, a 6-foot-9 left-hander, after only two innings.
Then he turned things over to a pair of battle-tested relievers and senior first-baseman Mike Kinkade, who crushed both the game-tying and game-winning home runs in a 6-5 win over Gonzaga in the nightcap of a Pac-10 doubleheader.
The Cougars, 7-5 in the Pac10 North Division and 15-20 overall, also won the seveninning opener 4-2 behind the three-hit pitching of freshman walk-on Kyle Poffenroth.
Gonzaga fell to 5-8 and 19-18.
Hendrickson, who has been drafted twice by Major League baseball teams, barely had time to give up a hit, an unearned run and three foul balls in his brief debut.
But he seemed satisfied with his performance considering he joined the baseball team less than a week ago after leading the Cougar basketball team on a three-game post-season run that ended in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament.
Before the start of the second game, more than 30 fans crowded around WSU’s bullpen to watch Hendrickson warm up.
“I noticed that right away,” Hendrickson said. “I was a little nervous, but I had a pretty good outing. I got my feet wet.”
Hendrickson, who pitched Mt. Vernon to the State AA baseball title as a high-school senior, threw around 30 pitches and faced only eight batters.
A walk, an error and Scott Morgan’s single to right gave Gonzaga an unearned run in the first inning, but Hendrickson set the Bulldogs down in order in the second.
“That second inning I settled down a little bit,” said Hendrickson, who threw mainly fastballs so he could concentrate more on his mechanics. “I can’t expect to go out and throw even four innings. I’m in shape, but I’m in basketball shape, not pitching shape, and that’s something people need to understand.”
Farrington was well aware of that coming in. And he realized Hendrickson might need some mental conditioning, as well, which is why he cut the debut of his prize rookie so short.
“That was a pretty emotional thing,” he said. “Everybody was making such a big deal out of it about and we wanted to make sure he had a positive outing.
“We know he’s going to be a good pitcher. Hopefully this will just set the stage.”
If all the media coverage surrounding Hendrickson’s debut was distracting, the Cougars did a splendid job of shrugging it off.
Kinkade, who caught Poffenroth in the opener and played first base in the nightcap, had three home runs and two singles in the two games and drove in five runs.
He also stole home in the third inning of the second game to highlight a three-run Cougar rally looked like it was going to make a winner out of Todd Belitz, the first of WSU’s two left-handed relievers.