Cougs Hit Baseballs Before Hitting Books

College baseball

Term papers or baseball? For Washington State’s Jim Horner, the answer was a no-brainer.

“Any time you can play baseball instead of do school work, you opt for that,” the senior third baseman said Tuesday, just moments after crashing a pair of home runs and driving in five runs to fuel the Cougars’ 18-10 rout of Gonzaga.

With Finals Week starting next Monday, Horner is staring at a Thursday deadline for a term paper. So are most of his teammates, and several - at the urging of coach Steve Farrington - decided to forgo Tuesday’s road trip to GU to concentrate on their studies.

Horner, however, put school work on the back burner long enough to take advantage of the friendly winds that were blowing briskly toward left field at GU’s August/A.R.T.

He lined a Steve Schorzman slider over the left-center field fence for a solo homer in the first inning and jumped on a Charlie Zimmerman fastball for a two-run homer in the Cougars’ six-run eighth.

“It’s Dead Week this week and a lot of papers are due,” Horner said. “But we’re all procrastinators, so we do them at the last minute. I’ve got one due Thursday. I’ve got to get back and work on it tonight.”

The homers were Horner’s seventh and eighth of the year, but his first since WSU’s spring-break road trip to Arizona back in early February.

“It’s been awhile since he’s got one up and out,” Farrington said of Horner, after watching his Cougars (21-31) beat GU (18-24) for the fifth time this season in a rescheduled game that was rained out last Wednesday.

“Confidence goes a long way and once (the ball) gets out of there, you feel like you can do it again. It’s nice to see him stay aggressive and actually get it done.”

Farrington, who has another nonleague game scheduled tonight at Lewis-Clark State, left several of his regular position players and all of his front-line pitchers at home to so they could concentrate on academics.

But the players he brought, brought along hot bats.

In addition to Horner’s two long balls, the Cougars had a pair of doubles and four RBIs from Randy Kaleikilo, three singles from Josh Hamik and a crucial three-run triple from Jason Hairston that gave them the lead for good in the sixth.

Wayne Vezetti (2-1), the second of three WSU pitchers, picked up the win. Russ Adams (2-4) took the loss after coming on in relief of Schorzman in the sixth and giving up a hit, two walks and three runs in one-third of an inning.

GU pounded out 10 hits and jumped to an early 4-1 lead on Jerrod Wong’s three-run homer in the bottom of the first. Freshman Brian Canny added a two-run shot - his first as a Zag - in the seventh, but coach Steve Hertz couldn’t find the pitching to complement his hot bats.

“I had a feeling the game would be like this,” Hertz said, explaining that his players are also a bit preoccupied with final exams coming up next week. “Both teams kind of had their minds elsewhere, but that’s no excuse. We just didn’t pitch.”

Washington St. 18, Gonzaga 10

Wash St. 120 026 160 -18 16 3 Gonzaga 410 021 200 -10 10 0

Wheeler, Vezetti (5), Zumwalt (8) and Hamik. Schorzman, Adams (6), Siwek (6), Zimmerman (8) and Asan, Canny (7). W-Vezetti (1-2). LP-Adams (2-4). HITS: WSURyan, Gleason 2, Horner 2, Hairston, Bowman 2, Hamik 3, Kelley 2, Kaleikilo 2, Vigeland. GU-Pearsall, Bowne, Brunell 2, Wong 2, Wulf, Workman, Asan, Canny. 2B-Bowman, Kaleikilo 2, Pearsall, Wulf. 3B-Gleason, Hairston. HR-Horner 2 (8), Canny (1), Wong (6).

Washington 10-6, C. Wash. 4-3

Ryan Soules had five hits on the day as the Huskies (25-22) swept a non-conference home doubleheader from the Wildcats (19-24).

Central 010 030 0 -4 6 3 Washington 103 213 x -10 12 0

Jablonski, Keber (5) and Jackson; Hannah, Morrison (7) and Shewey. WP-Hannah (2-1). LP-Jablonski (2-3).

Central 120 000 0 -3 8 1 Washington 212 100 x -6 11 1 Carmack and Boora; Harris, Darcrow (6), Morrison (7) and Bundy. WP-Harris (4-2). LP-Carmack (1-6).

Lewis-Clark St. 8, Whitworth 5

Troy Silva stroked a three-run homer in the fifth to power the Warriors (37-9) to a non-league road win over the Pirates (15-14).

L-C State also received solo homers from Tyler Borup and Buckey Jacobsen.

Silva’s blast gave LCSC a 6-2 lead and Keith Habig’s RBI single an inning later boosted the advantage to 7-2 before Whitworth rallied for a pair of runs in the sixth and another in the seventh.

LCSC 120 031 010 - 8 11 3 Whitwrth 020 002 100 - 5 8 2

Nickum, Barcelona (7), Conklin (9) and Wilson; Flemming and Schuerman. W-Nickum (4-0). L-Flemming (4-3). S-Conklin (3).

HITS: LCSC Fike 2, Rijo-Berger, Habig 3, Baeza, Silva 2, Borup, Jacobsen. Whitworth - Turner, Swan 2, Peterson, Fischer 2, Brown 2. 2B-Habig. HR-Silva (7), Borup (5), Jacobsen (4).

CCS 4-2, Yakima Valley 1-11

Adam Flohr scattered three hits, struck out five and pitched his fourth consecutive complete to pick up the win for the Sasquatch in the opener at Spokane Falls CC.

In the nightcap, Spokane got a homer from Chad Ripke and an RBI single from Jason Francek, but neither was enough to offset the 11 runs Yakima scored in the first two innings.

Yakima 000 010 0 -1 3 1 CCS 011 110 x -4 6 3

Gidge and Hopkins, Love (5); Flohr, and Zarfas. W-Flohr (5-2). L-Gidge.

HITS: Yakima - Taylor, Edler, Hopkins. CCS Davis 2, Best, Francek, Coulson, Sandnes. 2B-Edler.

Yakima 470 000 000 -11 9 2 CCS 000 200 000 -2 6 3

Horne, Underwood (7) and Love; Caponegro, Click (2), Daling (5), Miller (8) and Zarfas, Rieck (5). W-Horne. L-Capenegro (0-1).

HITS: Yakima - Taylor, Neumeyer, Edler 2, Pollock 2, Davison, Kennedy, Mitzel. CCS Sage, Gillispie, Best, Francek, Zarfus, Ripke. 2B-Pollack, Francek. HR-Ripke (2).

Softball

CCS 9-9, Wenatchee Valley 1-1

Traci Moore drove in a pair of runs with three hits in the opener and Katie Carpenter tossed a one-hitter in the nightcap as the Sasquatch (25-8, 17-3 in the NWAACC) swept WVCC at home.

Laura Schwarz struck out seven and scattered five hits to win the first game. Carpenter’s main offensive support in the second game came from Stacy Armitage, who drove in two runs and scored three.

Wenatchee 100 00 - 1 5 2 Spokane 403 2x - 9 10 0 ,

McFadden and Defolo; Schwarz and Fountain, Lawler (3). W-Schwarz (8-1). L-McFadden.

HITS: WVCC Boykin 3, Stofko, Harrison. CCS Fine 2, Risinger, Kinder 2, Moore 3, Grier, Hedum. 2B-Boykin, Stofko, Risinger, Kinder.

WVCC 000 10 - 1 1 3 CCS 040 23 - 9 8 1

Defolo and Stofka; Carpenter and Lawler. W-Carpenter (5-0). L-Defolo.

HITS: WVCC Harrison. CCS Fine 2, Bare, Kinder, Palmer, Lawler, Armitage 2 2B-Bare, Palmer, Lawler.

, DataTimes