Curran’S Blast In 9Th Helps Cougs Earn Split

Washington State baseball coach Steve Farrington has preached the blessings of maturity all spring.

His Cougars illustrated his point in spectacular fashion Saturday afternoon by scratching back from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat 20th-ranked Washington 10-9 in the second game of a Pacific-10 Conference North doubleheader.

A Mom’s Weekend crowd of 2,949 had flooded into Bailey Field during the day, but more than half had left by the time Steve Curran capped WSU’s stirring comeback with a two-out, two-run home run.

What made the unlikely victory even more impressive was that it came on the heels of a disappointing 3-2 loss in the opener. And it flew directly in the face of a gutsy UW comeback that had produced six eighth-inning runs and put the Cougars in a 9-5 hole heading into their last two at-bats.

“You hate to admit it, but last year we’d have folded,” Farrington said, after watching his Cougars earn a split that left them 19-16 overall and 9-5 in the tight Northern Division race, a game behind league leading Oregon State (10-4) and a half-game ahead of third-place UW (23-13, 9-6).

“That’s the thing about being a year older.”

Curran’s game-winning blast, a viscous line drive that was still rising when it left the yard, came off Huskies reliever and loser Cody Morrison (1-1) and made a winner out of Les McTavish (3-2), the third reliever used by Farrington. It followed a bases-loaded Greg Mitchell single that produced three runs after being misplayed by Washington’s Nick Stefonick in right field.

“When I hit it I didn’t think it was out,” admitted Curran, the Cougars’ 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore designated hitter. “I figured it would get into the corner and (the game) was tied.

“I knew I hit it well, but I thought it was too low. It just kept carrying. This is the first time I’ve ever hit a game-winning home run - even in Little League.”

When asked if last year’s team, which lost more games than any in WSU history, would have had enough character to mount a similar comeback, Curran said, “No way.

“Not only that,” he added, “but last year’s team would never have even been in position to make a comeback. Last year we knew we were going to lose. It was just a matter of finding a new creative way to do it.”

Nearly lost in all of the secondgame theatrics was the brilliant pitching performance of Jeff Heaverlo, who silenced the Cougars with a career-best 12-strikeout effort in the seven-inning opener.

The sophomore, son of former major league pitcher Dave Heaverlo, limited Washington State to four hits - two of which came in the last inning when Zack Bode made things interesting with a solo pinch-hit homer.

“He just really did a job on us,” Farrington said of Heaverlo (3-1), who kept the Cougars off balance with a knee-buckling slider and live fastball he kept just off the plate but well within the generous strike zone of home plate umpire Dan Burke. “He has great stuff and is capable of that kind of performance any time.”

The Cougars scored an unearned run in the third inning before Heaverlo settled in and retired 12 consecutive batters, five on strikeouts.

The Huskies provided all the offense Heaverlo needed with Kevin Miller’s solo homer in the second, a squeeze-play throwing error by WSU starter and loser Todd Meldahl (4-4) in the fourth and Stefonick’s runscoring single in the seventh.

After the disappointing loss in the second game, Washington coach Ken Knutson was sitting alone on the far end of his team’s bench, staring out at the playing field where his Huskies had just suffered such a cruel fate.

He seemed to be trying to convince himself that his two-time defending North Division champions will somehow be able to bounce back for today’s 1 p.m. finale of the four-game series.

“They have a lot of confidence right now because they’re playing well and winning games,” he said of the Cougars. “We’ve got to come back and play tomorrow and it’s going to be tough, there’s no doubt about it.

“But our team has been able to hang in there and come back in the past, so we’re going to show up.”