Cougars Run Huskies Around The Maypole

It was May Day, so on this of all dates you would expect another mayday call from the sinking Washington State baseball team.

After all, the Cougars had just completed a month in which they were 2-16. In addition, they had lost their last 14 Pacific-10 Conference games, including a 9-6 decision to Washington on Friday night.

Then there was the fact that Washington was throwing Jason Carlsen (7-0), the guy who pitched a complete-game one-hitter against the Cougars last season. And that the Huskies had won of nine of 10 games.

But the Cougars were able to plug the holes, bail the water out of the boat and somewhat right the WSU ship with a 14-1 victory over Huskies at Bailey Field on the first day of May. With the win, the Cougars moved to 19-25, 2-15. Washington fell to 28-14, 10-7.

Doing most of the work in the WSU win was converted closer Reggie Rivard. The hard-throwing right-hander went the distance, allowing only six hits with a walk and a strikeout.

“This is what we needed,” said Rivard, who is now 2-1. “We needed to really come out and kick somebody’s butt.

“Winning this series, it could salvage the season for us.”

“Now, they have something to play for,” added WSU coach Steve Farrington. “They can come out here tomorrow with a lot of confidence and win this series.”

If the Cougars play like they did on Saturday, that could happen.

Every player who came to bat got a hit. Shawn Stevenson led the way with four. In the series, the shortstop is 8 for 12. In his career, he is batting .458 (33 for 72) vs. Washington.

“Shawn stepped up and played well and there have been a lot of series where he has played well,” said Farrington. “But the key for us today was that it was not just one guy hitting the ball.

“Everybody was getting hits and making things happen,” he continued. “We were able to get runners on and then do a good job of hitting to move them over and scoring the runners.”

That good hitting was primarily due to more patience at the plate. The Cougars, who have displayed a penchant for striking out this season, did that only once against the Huskies. And that didn’t come until they had built a 12-0 lead.

There were also seven hits to the opposite field. Two of them were doubles by Bookie Gates, who had three RBIs and scored three runs.

But, even during the most-inept times of the Cougars’ April follies, they had been able to put runs on the board. Limiting the other team was an entirely different proposition.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Washington State had given up an average of 9.6 runs per game over their last 18. But the pitchers weren’t solely to blame. There was at least one error in all but one of those games. In all, the Cougars committed 39 errors last month.

There were two more errors on Saturday, but neither of them wound up hurting.

“The defense was great out there,” said Rivard. “I just had total confidence that when the ball was hit, the play was going to be made by the guys behind me.”

“You can’t win if you don’t have the pitching and the defense,” said Farrington. “And we have not been able to put those together. Today we did.”

The rubber game of the series is at 1 p.m. today at Bailey Field.