Stanford overcomes Washington State
If there was one word to describe Stanford’s 12-9 Pac-10 baseball victory over Washington State University on Saturday in Pullman it would be sloppy.
Even WSU coach Donnie Marbut would agree.
“We simply did not play well,” Marbut said after the Cougars’ record dropped to 22-19 overall and 11-6 in the Pac-10. “Give credit to Stanford for finding a way to win a sloppy game.”
The Cardinal (21-19, 9-11) did it by breaking a tie at 8 with four runs in the top of the ninth, three courtesy of two Cougars errors.
Stanford, which had lost six of its last seven Pac-10 games, gave freshman left-hander Brett Mooneyham an early 3-0 lead. But WSU rallied with five runs in the bottom of the third, keyed by Greg Lagried’s three-run double. The Cougars built the lead to 7-3 but the Cardinal tied it with a single run in the fifth and three in the sixth.
The Cougars retook the lead 8-7 in the sixth on Jared Prince’s RBI single, but Stanford tied it in the top of the eighth.
Drew Storen (5-1) got the win despite allowing WSU to tie the score in the eighth. Connor Lambert (1-1) suffered the loss.
The teams’ pitchers combined to issue 19 walks in the regionally televised game. They also added a hit batter, threw four wild pitches and were called for two balks.
•Also in the Pac-10: University of Washington pitcher Jason Erickson hasn’t given up a run in two weeks and the Huskies haven’t lost a Pac-10 game in the same time.
Erickson (3-4) helped host UW (20-23, 9-8) win its fifth consecutive conference game, 3-0 against USC (22-22, 10-10), with eight shutout innings. The senior struck out a career-high nine while yielding just six singles.
•West Coast Conference: Gonzaga dropped back into a tie with Loyola Marymount atop the conference standings after a 12-8 loss to Saint Mary’s at the Patterson Complex.
The Gaels (27-22, 8-9) broke a 1-1 tie with five runs, all earned, in the fifth off Steven Ames, who lost for the first time this season in eight decisions. The big blow was a three-run home run to left-center by Ryan Young. After the Bulldogs cut the lead to three on Ryan Weigand’s two-run, sixth-inning double, Kyle Jensen of Saint Mary’s belted a two-run home run to left in the seventh, one of his three hits.
Catcher Tyson Van Winkle paced the Bulldogs (29-14, 11-6) at the plate with two hits – including his 21st double – and three RBIs.
•NWAACC: Community Colleges of Spokane had 11 hits in each game, but only pulled out the nightcap at Yakima Valley (18-23, 10-14). Justin Murphy picked up the win and Mike Richard the save as CCS (18-16, 10-14 and tied for fifth in the East Region) earned an 8-7 victory. YVC won the opener 6-2 despite committing four errors.