Good morning, Coug fans! Summer is approaching, and the school year is coming to an end. I want to take a second to congratulate my fellow college graduates, and all the students who got through another difficult year!

While school might be over (or almost over), we still have some baseball left to root for. Your Washington State Cougars took a trip down to Southern California to visit USC this weekend, so let’s see what they have in store.

USC enters the matchup at home, with a 20-21 record, 8-13 in conference play. USC also sits right below the Cougs in the Pac 12 rankings. The last time these two teams played happened to be in Los Angeles, where USC unfortunately took the sweep, despite the last game ending in a 12 innings tie at 10-10.

Today, however, will be a different story (I hope).

For pitchers, USC might start any one of these three names- Isaac Esqueda, Chandler Champlain, or Alex Cornwell.

Esqueda had a season high of 8 strikeouts against Stanford, and averages 5 a game, give or take. He’s pitched 65 innings this season, and was a starter during his sophomore season through to his junior.

Champlain is next, with a season high of 10 strikeouts against Dixie State. His margin for strikeouts is a lot higher than Esqueda- Champlain either strikes out around 10, or doesn’t go higher than 3, with very few in examples in between.

And finally, we’ve got Cornwell with 8 strikeouts against Oregon State, roughly 5 a game, and a total of 66 innings pitched.

Ben Ramirez bats the most, he’s been at base 151 times this season, with 6 home runs. Clay Owens, however, leads the team in HRs with 11- joy.

Overall, this might be a really interesting weekend for the Cougs. I hope they brought sunscreen!

Links

A Grip on Sports: As we look forward in more ways than usual this Friday, we also have to remember the past | The Spokesman-Review
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Friday mornings are all about looking ahead. To the weekend. And beyond. So we will do that. Though, to be fair, the past informs the future. Every darn day.

A dozen down: Cougars jump out to 12-0 start | News, Sports, Jobs - Shepherdstown Chronicle
SHEPHERDSTOWN — As per usual in the last calendar year, the unknowns have outnumbered the knowns. Postponements, cancellations, weather-related changes and,

Cougar Crew heads to Pac‑12 championships this weekend | WSU Insider | Washington State University

New Pac-12 commissioner promises change for beleaguered conference
George Kliavkoff - whose name sent people throughout college sports straight to a Google search when it first surfaced - has ideal background for job.