Gaines Pitches Another Gem Against Bears

College baseball

Jamaal Gaines walked in commencement ceremonies at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Some 12 hours later, the Washington State pitcher walked all over the Cal Bears.

The senior, who earned his degree in general studies, earned his third win of the season, a complete-game 8-3 victory at Bailey Field in Pullman. With the win the Cougars moved to 21-25 overall and 4-14 in the Pac-10. Cal fell to 25-31, 9-13.

The win was the Cougars third in three games in May, after only having two the entire month of April. It is also the first time since March 20 that the Cougars have won three in a row.

After relying on Gaines’ arm through the first four innings, the Cougars’ bats came around in the fifth. Cal starter Jon Shirley got in trouble when he allowed Boyd Robertson and Shawn Stevenson back-to-back one-out singles. Three doubles and a single later, the Cougars had a 6-1 lead.

“I knew that our bats were going to come around,” said Gaines. “I just wanted to stay focused and patient and pitch my game - not try and worry about what our bats were doing. I had confidence that they would get it done.”

Gaines continued his mastery on the mound through the middle innings as he retired 12 straight Bears from the third through the sixth. In all, Gaines scattered three hits and only allowed one earned run.

He established a career high with nine strikeouts. Even a more telling statistic was Cal’s first four batters going hitless in 13 trips to the plate. “I was really spotting my fastball well,” said Gaines. “And then after that some off-speed stuff was working.”

It seems Gaines’ stuff usually works well against Cal. In his last outing against the Bears, Gaines went eight and allowed only three hits in a 5-2 win back in March.

Jason Grove added a home run in the bottom of the sixth and the Cougars had a commanding 8-1 lead. The home run was Grove’s 13th this season and 25th in his WSU career. The sophomore is now tied for ninth on the all-time home-run list with Rob Smith (‘84-‘87) and current New York Met Mike Kinkade (‘92-‘95).

For the 17th game in a row, the Cougars committed an error. This time it was on catcher Jeff Scherer. The senior was attempting to pick off a runner on first base and threw the ball over Steve Curran’s head. The miscue led to two unearned runs in the top of the seventh and an 8-3 score.

Washington State will take on Cal at 1 p.m. today at Bailey Field.

Also in the Pac-10, Mark Ernster and Willie Bloomquist hit two-run homers in the ninth and visiting Arizona State (38-19, 11-10) defeated Washington 13-8 to tie the Huskies for fourth place.

Sun Devils reliever Chad Pennington (7-5) struck out seven and allowed one earned run in 5-1/3 innings. Bryan Williamson, Dominic Woody and Ed Erickson had consecutive doubles to stake the Huskies (30-18, 11-10) to a 4-0, first-inning lead.

Daniel Haren pitched a complete-game six-hitter in the opener, and Pepperdine swept visiting Gonzaga 7-4, 12-5 at Malibu, Calif., to clinch the West Coast Conference’s Coast Division title.

Chris Spieth was 5 for 7 with four RBIs on the day for the Waves (40-11, 19-8), who lead the second-place Zags (24-20-2, 12-12-1) by 5-1/2 games with three remaining. Pepperdine earns a spot in the WCC’s divisional playoffs.

Jason Bay, who now has 19, homered twice in the opener for the Zags.

Catcher Mark Tyler hit five home runs and had 13 RBIs on the day as visiting George Fox swept Whitworth 19-2, 20-6 in the Northwest Conference.

Tyler finished the day 10 for 12 and scored eight runs. Nate Barnett of the Bruins (32-8, 18-6) was 5 for 8, with four homers and nine RBIs. George Fox totaled 12 homers and 41 hits.

Nate Lynch of the Pirates (17-25, 13-11) was 3 for 7 for the day.

John Bowles’ two-out single in the eighth gave Big Bend Community College a 1-0 win over Community Colleges of Spokane in the first game of a doubleheader sweep at Moses Lake.

The Vikings unleashed 14 hits to win the second game 11-3. George Petticrew of the Sasquatch (22-17, 16-13 Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges) pitched a complete-game four-hitter in the opener, striking out 11 and walking three.