WSU opens baseball season with a bang

I don’t know what it looks like outside your window, but down in Peoria, Ariz., it’s baseball season. The WSU baseball team headed south to open the season against Villanova yesterday, and pitched a two-hit shutout in the Seattle Mariners’ spring training ballpark.

Senior Dakota Hawkins fanned 10 batters in five innings and the WSU offense took advantage of some awful pitching by the Wildcats. Villanova walked 10 and hit two, to go along with two wild pitches by starter Sal Fusco. That’s why WSU got seven runs on just five hits.

Meanwhile, WSU pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts. Hawkins walked only two, both in the second inning.

WSU got things going in the second when Elijah Hainline singled home Will Cresswell and Kyle Russell. Cresswell and Russell were on base due to—what else?—walks. Hainline would score on a wild pitch.

(Aside: I’m grateful for there being video access to games like these. But, my goodness, if you had to watch the game from that angle, God bless you.)

WSU got three more runs in the fourth and one in the fifth. WSU also stole five bases.

This was WSU’s fourth straight win in season openers. They’ll play a doubleheader today against UC Riverside and the same Villanova Wildcats.