Cardinal Humble Cougars Pitching Poor In Worst WSU Loss Of Season Stanford 16 WSU 0

It was a beautiful day for baseball provided you weren’t a Washington State player, coach or fan.

On one of the best days offered up on the Palouse this spring, the Cougars offered little resistance in a 16-0 loss to No. 7 Stanford.

The win gave the Cardinal a sweep over the Cougars in their first trip to Pullman since 1971. In the three games, the Cardinal scored 41 runs. The Cougars scored six.

Sunday’s loss was the Cougars’ worst in more than two seasons and their fifth in a row. That’s the longest losing streak of the season for the Cougars (14-22, 2-7).

Stanford (25-9, 6-3) has won four in a row, three by double digits.

“We had a staff with a four ERA coming in here and you wouldn’t have known it,” said WSU coach Steve Farrington, whose bullpen had a 4.4 ERA prior to the series. “Not throwing strikes and centering the ball were two bad problems we had.”

The Cougars surrendered 28 walks in the three games against Stanford. Twenty-four of those walks came in Friday’s and Sunday’s games.

Five wild pitches added to the problems Sunday. In fact, before the Cardinal even got a hit, they had enough runs to win. Washington State starter Tyson Thompson (1-6) walked the first two batters, and three wild pitches later, Stanford had a 1-0 lead.

“The guy on the hill dictates the game,” said Farrington. “We can do all we want to do, go out and go 3 for 3, make four double plays, but the guy on the bump dictates the game.

“It’s not that Tyson is not competent,” he continued. “It’s about having the confidence to make that pitch and making it.”

Stanford’s hurlers had that confidence all weekend. On Friday, Justin Wayne had 10 strikeouts. Jason Young, who, in an inadvertent stab at the Cougars, was pictured in the Pac-10 baseball media guide as a WSU pitcher, had 15 strikeouts Saturday. And on Sunday, Stanford’s Tim Cunningham (2-1) went seven innings, allowed two hits, had five strikeouts and forced 13 ground balls.

“My off-speed stuff was really working,” Cunningham said. “And that kept them off balance and kind of forced them into all the ground balls.”

Only senior Ray Hattenburg, who extended his eight-game hitting streak, had more than one hit for the Cougars. For the Cardinal, John Gall was the player doing the damage at the plate.

The senior was 3 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs. In his last eight games, Gall is 19 for 33. Stanford rightfielder/quarterback Joe Borchard and Jason VanMeetren each had two RBIs.

“We ran the same people that have given us two, three and four ERAs through the season,” said Farrington. “It may just be another year or two before we figure out how to beat them.”

The Cardinal have not been a regularly scheduled opponent in the past because of the split between the NorPac and the SixPac. But following the 1997-98 season those two leagues were disbanded in favor of playing a full Pac-10 schedule between all nine baseball schools.

The Cougars will have to deal with another one of the top teams from the old SixPac this weekend. Arizona State, ranked No. 4 in the polls last week, visits Pullman for a three-game series starting Friday.

“We have got ASU this week and we see if we can get come confidence back,” said Farrington. “We will really work on not centering the ball, staying ahead in counts and keeping the ball down in situations.

“Offensively, we are a five- to six-run team and we can’t afford to give up the big inning,” he said. “We have got to pitch to be in it.”