WSU Cougars open Pac-12 baseball against No. 14 USC

PULLMAN – Ian Sagdal is an oddity in the Washington State infield: the only starter more than a year removed from his prom night and one of the few Cougars to have stared down a Pac-12 pitcher.

The senior second baseman is surrounded by freshmen: first baseman Tyler McDowell, shortstop Jack Strunc and third baseman Shane Matheny all start for a program that is in the early stages of a total transformation, with only five seniors on the roster.

The Cougars have another freshman starter in right fielder Shane Hatten, and center fielder Cameron Frost is only a sophomore.

Coach Donnie Marbut hopes that what his team lacks in experience it can make up for in talent and coachability, perhaps more than departed from last year’s 24-30 club.

“We needed to turn the roster over a little bit, for sure,” Marbut said. “We’ve got a group of guys who really like to play and when they’re inexperienced, like they are, they’re going to make mistakes. But what I’ve seen up to this point is they’re not repeating mistakes.”

The youthful Cougars are 11-5 following a four-game sweep of winless Sacred Heart University but the competition is about to get a lot tougher with Pac-12 play beginning at No. 14 USC on Friday.

WSU gave its underclassmen a head start by taking a trip to the Dominican Republic in the fall, playing against professionals and providing the new teammates with a chance to gel. In that regard, Marbut is relying heavily on his few remaining seniors to mentor the new guys.

Sagdal in particular has stepped up his bat, likely due to laser corrective eye surgery he underwent in the offseason. He leads the team with a .484 on-base percentage, up considerably from last year’s .346. His batting average of .373 also leads the team.

To weather the errors and slumps that will undoubtedly come for WSU’s freshmen bats, the Cougars will rely on a pair of senior starting pitchers.

Joe Pistorese is WSU’s ace and is notable for his longevity. Last season, Pistorese threw three complete games, including a five-hit shutout victory against California that earned him a Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honor. He gave up just one run and four hits in a complete-game win over No. 5 Oregon State as well.

He has been a deft pitcher throughout his career at WSU but never a strikeout pitcher. This offseason, though, he significantly increased his fastball velocity and now consistently touches the lower-90s rather than the mid-80s.

“That’s a result of the long-toss program we subscribe to,” said pitching coach Gregg Swenson. “We have them long-tossing every day, if Joe wants to go out to 300-, 400-feet, I don’t care. We work really hard in the offseason to train our arms to handle that so that’s one of the things he’s really picked up on.”

Helping Pistorese anchor the Cougars will be Sean Hartnett, a 6-foot-5 righty who excelled at times as a member of the bullpen last season. Hartnett’s best games came in long relief against ranked teams last season and the coaches are hoping that translates to an everyday starting role.

So far, so good, as Hartnett is 3-1 with a 3.47 in 23 1/3 innings.

“Sean has just really worked on accepting that he’s really good,” Swenson said. “He’s got all the stuff that it takes to be really successful at our level and he’s just always made a mistake here or there that prevented that from appearing.”

Still, WSU’s freshman class has infiltrated even the three-man weekend rotation with Nick Leonard already starting, albeit with his pitch count strictly monitored for the time being.

And when Leonard takes the mound more than half the Cougars in the field could be freshmen. That’s not a recipe for a Pac-12 championship but hope is that, with some guidance from the few upperclassmen sticking around the clubhouse, the new players can form the foundation of what will eventually be a very experienced group. Perhaps even one that can end WSU’s four-year postseason drought.

“They support each other. It’s not about class, it’s just about the Cougars and the name on the front of the jerseys,” Marbut said. “I’ve really noticed that.”

Gonzaga

The Bulldogs can hit this year and they can pitch, so if they can start fielding those easy grounders then this could be a memorable season.

The Bulldogs have not always gotten the results they expected during their 17-game, season-opening road trip that winds up today and Wednesday at Arkansas, but Gonzaga (7-8) appears to be trending upward heading into its West Coast Conference opener against San Francisco on Friday. That also will be the Bulldogs’ home opener.

WCC play will ultimately decide the success of this season, as it does every year when GU doesn’t boast a top-25 team capable of making the postseason on earned reputation alone. Last year the Bulldogs finished their nonconference schedule with a 9-14 record but came within a game of a WCC championship and a trip to the NCAAs.

“We haven’t played our best baseball yet and we’ve had chances and haven’t really got it done yet,” coach Mark Machtolf said. “But I feel like we’re a good team with great leadership and it’s a long season.”

GU’s bats could give them a chance to make a similar attempt at the postseason this year. Mitchell Gunsolus is hitting .419 and leads a strong lineup that has five regular starters with batting averages of .310 or better.

The Bulldogs return two talented starters on the mound in Andrew Sopko and Brandon Bailey. Sopko has a 1.96 ERA in four starts while Bailey, who can throw in the mid-to-high 90s, is holding opponents to a .223 batting average.

But an inability to generate outs on balls in play has cost GU, which ranks 240th among Division I teams with a .949 fielding percentage.

“Sometimes it’s just baseball, the way things happen,” Gunsolus said. “Wins and losses aren’t quite what we would want but we’re playing together and we just need to start playing more complete games.”