Cougar baseball hosts Oregon for a doubleheader Saturday

Washington State baseball will look to continue their winning ways this weekend at home against Oregon. The first game of the three game series was rained out Friday, and the teams will meet for a doubleheader Saturday.

The Cougs are just 6-12 in Pac-12 play this season, but have been playing some of their best baseball recently. After losing its first four series against conference opponents, WSU has taken two out of three against both Utah and UW.

Oregon has only won two more conference games than the Cougs this season, but is in contention for a bid to the NCAA tournament. Bracket prognosticators have differing opinions on the Ducks odds for an at-large spot, but their fate is far from sealed. WSU has the opportunity to play spoiler over the weekend.

Damon Jones was originally penciled in to pitch Friday for WSU, and I assume he will start one of Saturday’s games. The opposing starter is likely Oregon’s ace, left-hander David Peterson. The junior has a 1.94 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 74 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched this season.

Cody Anderson, who has been the Cougs most consistent starter all year, is slated to go Sunday. They’ll likely need another solid outing from Anderson if they want to get their first series win against the Ducks since 2011.

While the NCAA tournament isn’t on the immediate horizon, the team has shown signs of life in 2017. A series win over the Ducks on graduation weekend would look good for the program going into next season.

The Cougs and Ducks will start their doubleheader at 1 p.m. from Bailey-Brayton Field Saturday. The two teams will play at the same time and place on Sunday for the third and final game of the series. You can also stream the games online at Pac-12.com.

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