Sadly, aluminum bats don't cut down trees

Except on Fridays of course.  Thanks to Matt Way, little effort with the bats was needed as he went eight innings and the Cougs cruised to a 3-1 victory.

The weekend did not go quite as well.  Wazzu blew a late lead on Saturday, giving up four ninth innings runs and losing 12-9.  Greg Lagreid led the way for Washington State going 2 for 3 and driving in four runs.  On Sunday WSU fell again to the Cardinal, 3-2.  Redshirt-freshman David Stilley pitched his longest outing of the season, going 6 2/3 innings before surrending a two-run homerun to Stanford's Brent Milleville in the 7th.

The loss dropped the Cougs to 11-7 in conference play and a tie for third place with Oregon State.

So what does this mean for postseason chances?  Still work to do.  Jeremy Mills of ESPN has the Cougs as one of the last five teams in the field of 64.

Last place Oregon comes into Pullman for a three game series starting on Saturday night.  The Cougars cannot afford to trip up against the lowly Ducks.  A sweep may not be entirely neccessary, but it would make life easier with a trip to Oregon State looming followed by a suddenly hot Washington Husky squad to finish out the Pac 10 schedule.

The good news for the Washington State baseball team and their fans:  Ducks are helpless when it comes to aluminum bats.  Unlike trees, a razor sharp edge is not needed to be effective.

Bonus fact of the day:  The Pac 10 keeps track of TEAM rankings for innings pitched.  The Cougs, despite being tied for 6th in total games played are 8th in "innings pitched."  Yay for baseball and yay for stats.

Bonus bonus fact of the day:  The Mutts of Montlake are at it again.  Trying to cheat their way to victory.  This time by means of impeding the batters' attempts at hitting the incoming pitches. The Huskies dubiously lead the conference in catcher's interferences with three. Not surpisingly, our noble and honorable Washington State Cougars are last in that category, with just one catcher's interference for the entire season.  Hopefully the NCAA selection committee will take notice of this and reward accordingly.