Cougars, Zags Make Strides To Right Ships
Neither team will be mistaken for the 1927 Yankees, but Washington State and Gonzaga showed signs this spring of mounting a mini-resurgence of college baseball in the area.
The Cougars finished a distant third in the four-team Pacific-10 Conference Northern Division at 12-12, but their 25-24 overall mark gave fourth-year coach Steve Farrington his first winning season at the Division I level.
WSU had 12 more wins and 18 fewer losses than last year, when the Cougs were a dismal 13-42 and set a school record for defeats. Particularly, they showed big improvement on the mound, posting a team earned-run average of 6.66, compared to last year’s 9.49.
GU staged a dramatic turnaround the second half of its season, winning 14 of its last 27 games to finish 16-34 overall and 10-20 in the tough West Coast Conference.
The 10 league wins were the most since the Bulldogs joined the WCC three years ago. All came after coach Steve Hertz’s team struggled through a 19-game losing streak that included five one-run defeats.
The Zags won five of their last seven - including two of three against WCC runner-up Pepperdine. They also produced the league’s May 4 player of the week, senior Kevin Workman, who batted .429 with a pair of home runs and picked up a pitching win with five innings of relief in the three-game series against the Waves.
The Bulldogs also boasted one of the league’s hottest hitters in freshman first baseman Adam Stokey, who stroked three home runs in last weekend’s three-game series against San Diego. Stokey finished as GU’s leader in batting average (.363), doubles (11), on-base percentage (.446) and fielding (.985).
It’s over
Farrington did his best to make sure his first winning season as Washington State’s head coach wasn’t over until it was over.
Alas, it is now officially over.
The Cougars were scheduled to wrap up their regular season at home this week with games against No. 1-ranked Stanford on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The three-game series had to be canceled, however, after the Cardinal won the Southern Division and earned the right to play for the Pacific-10 Conference’s berth in the NCAA playoffs.
Farrington attempted to line up a new opponent for this weekend, but found none.
Let the playoff begin
Washington, after winning its third consecutive Northern Division title, will entertain No. 1-ranked Stanford starting Thursday in a best-of-3 series that will determine the Pac-10’s automatic berth in the NCAA regionals.
The series will be played at Husky Ballpark, with games at 3 p.m. Thursday, 1 p.m. Friday and, if necessary, noon Saturday.
The Huskies finished the regular season 35-15 overall, 17-7 in the Pac-10 North and ranked 19th in the nation. Stanford won the Southern Division (Six-Pac) title with a record of 22-8. The Cardinal is 41-10 overall.
Mighty Casey
With three home runs in last weekend’s four-game series against Portland State, WSU’s Casey Kelley set a single-season school record for home runs with 25.
The junior first baseman broke the mark of 23 set by John Olerud in 1988. Olerud played in 66 games that year; Kelley played in 49.
On the downside, Kelley also set a Cougars standard by striking out 63 times.
Whitworth whitewashed
Despite several outstanding individual efforts, Whitworth failed to place a player on this year’s NCIC All-Conference team.
The Pirates, 13-24 overall and 9-14 in the NCIC, did, however, place first baseman Tim Bishop, second baseman Chad Ripke, outfielder Mike Francek and pitcher Jeff Tracy on the honorable mention list.
Ripke finished with an .810 slugging percentage, second-highest in school history. Bishop’s 15 home runs moved him into second place on the single-season list behind Mike Nyquist, who belted 19 in 1989.
Bay, Bevacqua honored
North Idaho College’s Jason Bay and Al Bevacqua were honored as second-team selections on the All-Region 18 team.
Bay, named as an outfielder, batted .394 with a school-record 21 home runs for the Cardinal (17-27 overall, 6-17 Region 18). Bevacqua, an infielder, hit .389 with 43 RBIs.