HCA: Cougar baseball gets first series win

The Washington State baseball team earned their first series win of the season over the weekend with two victories over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The opportunity for a sweep fell short on Sunday as they would drop the last game in Peoria, Arizona.

Like most games this season, the Cougars started out slow but would finished strong. Sophomore Zane Mills got the start on the bump on Friday and recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts while allowing just five hits and two unearned runs in his 7.2 innings pitched. His two runs given up came in the second inning, the Scarlet Knights would fail to bring another runner across the plate the rest of the game. The Cougars would score runs in every inning from the third on except for in the bottom of the seventh but would make up for it with three in the eighth inning to give them a 9-2 win in game 1.

The Cougars bats and pitching would go to work again on Saturday in a 10-2 victory. A.J. Block would match Mills strikeouts from the day before with 10 himself in his 6 innings. He would give up four hits and one run while walking two. Tyler Lasch would double down the right field line in the second inning scoring Justin Van De Brake who would really get the scoring going in the third inning with a grand slam to give the Cougars a 5-1 lead. The Cougars would score in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings to put away the Knights.

The scoring would come to a halt on Sunday however as they managed to get just one run across the plate in a 6-1 loss. Jake Meyer would record the only RBI on a sac fly and would only be one of four Cougars to record a hit. Ethan Ross would get the start but would last just 1.2 innings giving up three runs on four hits and walked two.

The Cougars will host Niagara for their home opener beginning Thursday at 3:05 at Bailey-Brayton Field and run until Sunday. They will then host Gonzaga for the first time this season before beginning conference play next weekend.

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Baseball:

Baseball wins first series, misses sweep

After two convincing wins, the Cougars fell short in three-game sweep as they lost 6-1 to the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights at Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona.