Cougar Baseball defeats Hawaii again!

Schöne Grüße aus München, Bayern! Also known as the place where FFP2 (KN95) masks are compulsory just about everywhere and also where COVID is more rampant than anywhere in the country. I have no words.

While it may seem like basketball season is still in full swing, we’re dedicating the bulk of another post to Washington State Cougars Baseball! After coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win the opener 5-4, WSU rode more solid pitching on Saturday to a 4-2 win. UNDEFEATED SEASON STILL IN PLAY! If it seemed to you like Saturday’s game lasted an entire season, you’re probably not alone. Despite the relatively low score, time of game was a lava flow-like 4:19. Who do these guys think they are, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees?!

Starter Cole McMillan collected his first win in this young season, giving up just three hits and one earned run over five innings. It did take him 95 pitches to get there, however. After that, the bullpen took over and shut things down. Between them, relievers Chase Grillo, Matt Erickson, Cam Liss and Caden Klaeber allowed just one walk and zero hits over the final four innings. Talk about slamming the door. Klaeber went two innings to pick up his first save of the young season.

While the Cougar bats haven’t exactly been as hot as we were used to last season - MISS YOU MANZ(Y)ARDO! - they did just enough. The Cougs got out to a 3-1 lead after five innings on the backs of RBI singles from Justin Van De Brake, Kyle Russell and Collin Montez. WSU logged its only extra base hit (among seven in the game) in the eighth inning when first baseman Jacob McKean doubled to drive in Jack Smith, providing the always-valuable insurance run.

Brian Green’s boys put their unbeaten season on the line Sunday, in the third of a four-game series on Oahu. First pitch is schedule for 3:05 p.m., and while it is not televised, you can listen to the Hawaii homer radio broadcast here. You will be able to stream Monday’s series finale on ESPN+.

Baseball

Cougars Back McMillan in 4-2 Win at Hawaii - Washington State University Athletics
For the first time since the 1992-93 seasons, Washington State has started 2-0 in consecutive seasons.

Basketball

Big game for the Cougar women Sunday, as they take on the 8th-ranked Arizona Wildcats at noon in Beasley Coliseum. Seeing as how the women are the only WSU basketball team with a realistic shot at playing in this year’s NCAA Tournament, I encourage you all to show up at Friel Court with your yelling shoes on. If you can’t make it, you can watch on Pac-12 Networks.

The men, meanwhile, have yet another chance to beat a highly-ranked team for the first time this season, as they take on the USC Trojans in Los Angeles. Tip time is 4:30 p.m. on FS1.

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This Week in Parenting

As any of you with an Amazon Fire Stick know, each person can have his/her own profile avatar. At some point in the distant past, the boys assigned profiles to themselves and to old dad. Theirs were a tiger and monkey, and they gave me a hippo. I never really knew why, and didn’t care enough to ask. So imagine my surprise this week when, upon bringing up the Fire Stick menu, my avatar had been changed to this:

The boys were summoned, but I was 99.9% certain that the 10 year-old was behind this one. So when I asked them what the deal was, he set me straight.
“Why is my profile picture different?”
“We thought this one was more accurate. The last guy looked too nice. Too vibrant. This one looks like you in the morning. I took a screenshot.”

That last quip was made only to rub salt in the gaping wound.

After dinner on Saturday, we gathered to watch Mrs. Kendall’s Dayton Flyers take on St. Joe’s in at Atlantic 10 battle. Mrs. Kendall and the kids were equal parts transfixed and annoyed by the St Joe’s mascot flapping its wings nonstop for the entirety of the game. I made sure to keep the annoyance level high by shouting “Ca Caw! Ca Caw!” every time the Hawk came into view. I also told them that the Hawk always does this, and even showed them an old clip of a brawl between the Rhode Island ram and St Joe’s Hawk, during which the Hawk’s head was ripped off, yet the wings continued to flap.

While the 13 year-old read one of my books about Vietnam that he brought on the trip (he couldn’t care less about basketball, which is probably for the best), the younger boy and his mom began comparing mascots. St Joe’s has the aforementioned Hawk, and Dayton has legendary aviator Rudy Flyer. Finally, the boy got so fed with the flapping Hawk that he said, “I hope that bird gets sucked into Rudy’s engine.”

It was so funny that I didn’t have the heart to tell him such an incident would end poorly for both parties (but more so for the detested Hawk).

Non-Sports

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