Cougars defeat fifth-ranked Beavers

PULLMAN – There was a dominant pitcher in Pullman on Friday night and it wasn’t Oregon State ace Ben Wetzler.

Instead, Joe Pistorese continued his remarkable run, pitching a complete game for the second time in a week as Washington State beat the No. 5 Beavers 4-1.

Pistorese pitched a shutout against California last week and on Friday became the first WSU pitcher with back-to-back complete games since Adam Conley in 2011. He retired every leadoff batter, and sat down 19 of 20 batters from the third to ninth innings.

“It’s just awesome. I’m so happy for him to do that, especially against a good team like this,” teammate Trek Stemp said. “Not a shutout today, but I think his performance today was better than Cal.”

He did it against a team that entered the game batting .286 overall, fourth in the Pac-12.

All four WSU runs came at the expense of Wetzler, who was dealt his first defeat. The lefty entered the game with a 0.38 ERA in six appearances, all wins, and had given up three runs in 47 innings of work for OSU (25-7, 9-4 Pac-12).

The Cougars exceeded that in three innings. Leadoff man Stemp scored in the first after getting aboard with a single and moving to second on Collin Slaybaugh’s sacrifice bunt. Nick Tanielu drove him in with a single.

Stemp scored again in the third after he doubled, went to third on another Slaybaugh sacrifice, and scored on Tanielu’s hit.

Nick Tanielu and Yale Rosen also scored in the third on fielding errors.

WSU (16-14, 7-4) remains tied with UCLA for third place.

Monda to forgo draft

Pitcher/outfielder Jason Monda will forgo the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft, said WSU coach Donnie Marbut, instead choosing to pursue a career as a medical professional.

The Phillies selected him in the sixth round of last year’s draft and he reportedly turned down a $200,000 bonus to stay in school. Coming out of high school Monda was drafted in the 32nd round.

“He’s a smart guy, he’s got a plan, he’s got a dream of what he wants to do,” Marbut said. “I think more people should commend him, because if you really want to call a spade a spade and really predict what might happen … not a lot of guys play in the big leagues. He could be a high, high draft pick and maybe he spends the next six years in the minor leagues trying to get there and it never really happens for him.”