WSU BASEBALL: Cougs Bounce Back To Sweep Utah Valley State

by Jeff Nusser on Mar 14, 2011 10:00 AM PDT in WSU Baseball News

Following Monday's drubbing at the hands of Dallas Baptist, WSU baseball coach Donnie Marbut was not a happy camper.

"We did not compete at a very high level and when don't do that you are going to get beat by a good team like Dallas Baptist," he said after the game, and if there's anything a team doesn't want to hear from its coach, it's the dreaded "we didn't compete." To make matters worse, it was WSU's third consecutive loss after starting the year 5-1.

The Cougs turned things around in a big way. After squeaking by Dallas Baptist in the finale of the two-game series on Tuesday, 8-7, WSU finished up the homestand by sweeping Utah Valley State, culminated by a 16-2 whipping of the Wolverines on Sunday.

Marbut sounded happier yesterday.

"Offensively, we played with some urgency for the first time this year," he said. "Hopefully, we keep our energy up moving forward."

Patrick Claussen led the way on Sunday by going 3-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. And if you're looking for another positive sign out of the bats, Cody Bartlett and Derek Jones seem to be crawling out of their slow starts.

Also of note: Adam Conley is still awesome. He led off the weekend series on Friday with eight innings in which he allowed just one run while striking out nine and walking none. His ERA now stands at 0.93 after four starts. Erstwhile Friday night starter Chad Arnold, who has been sidelined after elbow surgery, was scheduled to make his first start of the year yesterday, but he didn't. No word on what happened there.

The Cougs are rolling at a good time, because they face their toughest test of the year this weekend when they travel to Fresno State for a four-game series starting on Thursday at 6:05 p.m. The Bulldogs are ranked as high as No. 20.

One fun thing about this weekend's series? All the games are being webcast by FSU. If you did the trial run for the CBS college sports "XXL" package provided by the coupon code "FREEMONTH10", and your trial isn't over yet, you should have access to all of those games. (Same goes if your trial is over and you continued the subscription, obviously.)

Bonus video after the jump -- interviews with Marbut, Claussen and Jones.

Donnie Marbut

Patrick Claussen

Derek Jones

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Huge, huge series.

FSU’s pitching is very, very good. They have great starters and terrific relief guys.

DeRooy’s solid start was encouraging because you need to have a 4th starter who can at least compete, that is give up 4-5 runs in about 5 innings of work. Jackson has barely made it out of the 1st inning in his starts.

I expect to win the first game with Conley going. Although they will be able to match us with an ace, they don’t have the bats that we do and we should be able to manufacture a couple of runs.

Hopefully Arnold returns and is dominant because we need him to be. The nice thing is that if we are able to put the bat on the ball with RISP we should be able to take the series, or at the very least split it.

by ptowncoug3012 on Mar 14, 2011 10:10 AM PDT reply actions

So about the CBS college sports "XXL" package

Has anyone canceled there subscription? I am trying to drop mine now that it is going to charge, and I am having trouble finding where to cancel it.

by Kirt on Mar 14, 2011 10:20 AM PDT reply actions

Nevermind...

I figured it out. You have to actually email them to cancel your subscription. What an annoying tedious process.

by Kirt on Mar 14, 2011 11:47 AM PDT up reply actions

Some notes from this past weekend:

Taylor Ard is a huge human being. The guy is built like a tree trunk.

Derek Jones might be the best hitter on the team. Always seemed to come through in the clutch.

Adam Conley is ridiculous. I understand Utah Valley isn’t exactly the best team in the nation, but he was basically doing whatever he wanted out there.

Cody Bartlett injured himself stealing 2nd. It looked like a concussion, as he laid on the ground for about 5 minutes. He walked off the field with help from the coaches. Scary moment.

Jason Monda made a spectacular diving catch in center field that ended an inning. It saved a run and stopped a 2 out rally. Most of the time, when a player makes a great catch, you hear the crowd ‘oooh’ and ‘ahh’ before cheering. This time, a collective “Holy sh*t.” could be heard.

Utah Valley’s first basemen’s name is Goose Kallunki. He’s 6’5, 240 lbs. I feel like that’s a fictional name for a character Chris Farley is supposed to play in a comedy about college drinking.

The stands were pretty empty (as expected), so you could hear each individual’s comments. I didn’t take this into account when I yelled, “GOOSE, YOU DIE AT THE END, AND NO ONE EVEN LIKES YOU”. Mrs. Kyle was pretty embarassed.

twitter | CougCenter

by Kyle Rancourt on Mar 14, 2011 12:05 PM PDT reply actions

Talk to me goose

Attractive, Intelligent, Short Attention Span, Timbers Fan Reader

by Coug999 on Mar 14, 2011 2:00 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Ard is huge, and has a horrible mustache.

I’m glad to see Jones is maybe coming out of his slump, he was really struggling early, you could tell just by his approach that he was getting frustrated.

I think the conference call is still on for Tuesday, so I’m going to ask about Arnold and Bartlett too.

-Brett G.
-Daily Evergreen Staff Sports Writer
Twitter | WSU Baseball Blog

by Brett the 49er on Mar 14, 2011 2:28 PM PDT up reply actions