WSU Hitters Play Shell Game At Gu

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Washington State and Gonzaga both played in the North Division of the Pacific-10 Conference and staged bitter, intense battles whenever they shared a baseball field.

But the once-heated rivalry cooled dramatically when GU left the Pac-10 to join the West Coast Conference two years ago.

Since then, the schools have continued to play several times a year, but usually during the middle of the week with their attention centered on a more important weekend series against a league opponent.

Such was the case Wednesday afternoon at August/A.R.T. Stadium as WSU humiliated the Bulldogs in their home opener 18-4 in front of a small crowd generously estimated at 218.

With both teams facing important homestands against conference foes this weekend, neither wanted to risk injury or fatigue to key players. As a result, most pitchers worked on abbreviated pitch counts, a couple of seldom-used reserves nearly equaled their season at-bats in a single afternoon and a few regulars found themselves playing unfamiliar positions by game’s end.

By the time the last out was recorded, the teams had combined for 22 runs, 25 hits, seven errors, 12 walks and four hit batsmen. And the names of 11 pitchers and 25 position players had been penciled into the official scorebook.

It was enough to make veteran Gonzaga coach Steve Hertz long for the days when the Cougars and Bulldogs were chasing the same prize.

“I miss the old North Division rivalries, I really do,” Hertz said after watching his Bulldogs (2-16 overall, 0-6 in the WCC) stagger to their 14th straight loss. “If we were 3-0 in our league and playing better, I might not feel the same, but right now I really do miss it.”

The defeat also left Hertz wondering if things can get any worse.

“I’ve never been this down in 25 years of coaching,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of ballgames here, and that was tough to witness. But I have to take responsibility for it. It happened under my watch and how we play is how I’ve coached ‘em.”

The Bulldogs, like they have on several occasions, started confidently but shied at the first sign of adversity.

They staked starter Nick Hess to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Travis Knight’s RBI single and an infield groundout by Adam Stokey that scored Knight. But after WSU (8-10) pulled even with two runs in the fifth and went up 4-3 on Shawn Stevenson’s run-scoring triple in the sixth, GU unraveled, giving up 14 runs on nine hits and committing three of its five errors over the last three innings.

WSU, which received three hits each from Scott Randall and Greg Mitchell and a three-run homer from Casey Kelley, batted around in the eighth and ninth innings and built some much-needed momentum heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. home and Pac-10 North opener against Oregon State at Bailey Field.

“We got in late last night (from California), so I was concerned about how we might play,” Cougars coach Steve Farrington said after his team snapped a three-game losing streak. “But we came out and finally got it rolling. It was nice to see us swing the bats and keep it rolling once we got it rolling.

“We needed this. It was important for us to get a win and see the results of working hard. That’s as good as we can do, today, and we’re looking forward to the weekend.”

Gonzaga will try to snap its prolonged skid and pick up its first WCC win of the season when it entertains San Francisco on Friday at 2 p.m. in the first of a three-game series that concludes Saturday with a noon doubleheader. WSU and OSU also play a noon doubleheader Sunday and a single game at 1 p.m. Monday.

Washington State 18, Gonzaga 4

WSU 010 021 365 - 18 16 2

Gonzaga 201 000 001 - 4 9 5

Grove, Guiver (4), Figeland (6), McTabish (8), Rice (9) and Scherer, Smith (7); Hess, Urdahl (3), Kearney (6), Higgins (8), Sazama (8), Workman (9) and Asan. W-Guiver (1-0). L-Kearney (0-3).

HITS: Washington State-Stevenson, Randall 3, Robertson, Kelley 2, Mitchell 3, Curran 2, Hattenburg, Mentink, Smith, Gleason. Gonzaga-Taylor, Knight 3, Hart, Stokey 3, Arnott. 2B-Randall, Taylor, Knight. 3B-Stevenson. HR-Kelley (6).

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo