Cougar baseball travels to Loyola Marymount

The Washington State baseball team will face an early season test with a four game series against Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. The Cougars and Lions will have their first game Friday at 6 p.m. and finish the series Monday.

WSU (1-2) will look to rebound after a slow start to the season. Last weekend at Sacramento St. the Cougs dropped two of three in a rain altered series. The starting pitchers struggled to go deep into games, and the offense failed to score more than four runs in any game.

LMU (2-2) is receiving votes in top-25 polls, but has had a mixed start to the season. The Lions took two out of three games against no. 19 UC Santa Barbara before falling at home to Tennessee Wednesday.

The Cougs had 12 players make their career debut last weekend, including eight starters. Starting pitcher Cody Anderson, a junior college transfer, was a bright spot as he struck out seven in four and two-thirds innings on Sunday. Middle infielders Andres Alvarez and Dillon Plew both hit consistently in their first games for WSU.

Anderson will start Sunday for the Cougs with the two other starters from last week, Damon Jones and Ryan Walker, getting the nod Friday and Saturday. Monday’s starter is yet to be announced.

With so many new players, it’s impossible to get a feel for this WSU baseball team so far. Two months from now the lineup and rotation could be significantly different from their present form. However, it will be fun to watch this young team (only one senior on the roster) develop this year. By the end of the season we’ll hopefully have a better idea of how Head Coach Marty Lees is going to turn WSU into a Pac-12 contender again

The games Friday and Saturday will start at 6 p.m. and first pitch will be at 1 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Live stats and a video stream will be available on wsucougars.com.

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