Cougars lose opener

College baseball’s starting date may now be the same, but that doesn’t mean the playing field has been leveled.

Washington State and Creighton opened the season Friday afternoon – Feb. 22 is the first possible game date for all NCAA Division I schools this year – at Bailey-Brayton Field with the sun shining as it’s done all week in the Palouse.

But it was the Bluejays from Omaha, Neb., whose first outdoor practice came Thursday in Pullman, who played like the warm-weather school.

The Jays knocked Chad Arnold from the box in the second, took advantage of four WSU errors and breezed to an 8-4 win before 1,092 sun-drenched fans – for three innings at least.

“That was really disappointing,” said WSU coach Donnie Marbut of WSU’s miscues. “That’s one thing I think is going to be a strength of our club is our defense.”

The Jays, 45-16 a year ago, didn’t really need the extra help, not with left-hander Ben Mancuso on the mound.

The senior was the Missouri Valley Conference pitcher of the year in 2007, and he started where he left off, limiting WSU to six hits and two earned runs in five quick innings.

“There’s a reason why he won 10 games last year,” Marbut said of Mancuso, who was 10-3 with a 2.34 earned-run average last season. “He goes right at you and he throws strikes.”

The final four frames were handled by Creighton’s Pat Venditte, whose three-hit, one-run performance wasn’t as unusual as the manner in which he accomplished it.

Venditte, drafted by the New York Yankees last summer, pitches with both arms. He uses a six-finger glove and switches from his natural, low-90s fastball right-handed side against right-handed hitters to a slider-throwing left-hander against lefties.

“It certainly wasn’t something I had seen before,” said WSU shortstop Paul Gran, who was 3 for 3 with three RBIs, including a run-scoring, seventh-inning single against Venditte. “Beyond that, he’s just like anybody else when you go up there, just a different-shaped glove.

“We didn’t play like we should have. We played a little sloppy. … It’s hard playing from behind, especially the first game.”

•Andrew Oliver allowed one run on two hits while striking out six in 52/3 innings to lead No. 27 Oklahoma State to a 6-1 non-conference win over Gonzaga in both teams’ season opener at Reynolds Stadium in Stillwater, Okla.

Jordy Mercer and Matt Hague drove in two runs apiece to lead the Cowboys.

Brandon Harmon took the loss for the Bulldogs, allowing five runs in five innings.