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Former Cougar left hander Joe Pistorese is red hot. The Everett Aqua Sox relief pitcher went through the month of August without allowing a single earned run. He pitched 17 innings while recording three saves. Pistorese struck out 20 batters and only allowed six hitters to reach base. That's some "1990 Dennis Eckersley" type numbers.
The southpaw has really taken to a relief role after being drafted in the 17th round by the Seattle Mariners. He is currently sporting a 1.28 ERA for the season with an almost 7-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio in short-season A ball. Pistorese was an all-Pac-12 starter for the Cougars his senior year and is the all-time leader in innings pitched for WSU. The Mariners felt that the Kalispell, Montana, native's stuff would play up better in relief and are looking pretty smart so far.
With the exception of Adam Conley, WSU hasn't had a lot of pro baseball success stories since the Bobo Brayton era. It's nice to see Pistorese have such an incredible start to his professional career.
On to the links.
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Football
WSU practice notes: Slinging in the rain | The Spokesman-Review
Those of us who have covered the Cougars for a long time, say three weeks, remember when it was 105-degrees in Lewiston. Now, it's raining.
Cougars give free tickets to those affected by WA wildfires | The Spokesman-Review
After three days of clean air in Pullman, it appears that Washington State's 11 a.m. game against Portland State will not be impacted by local wildfires. So, the Cougars are using their unsold tickets to help those who do need some relief.
Ranking the Pac-12 season openers - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
The Pac-12/SEC matchup between Arizona State and Texas A&M tops the list of Pac-12 openers.
Ten bold Pac-12 predictions for 2015 - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
Some of these ten bold predictions for the football season will make us look like geniuses while some of these will make us look like fools.
Something to prove: Pac-12 North - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
Pass catchers at Oregon and Oregon State and DL replacements at Washington and Washington State have something to prove in the Pac-12 North.
WSU live chat (transcript) | The Spokesman-Review
Join me at 11 a.m. for a live chat to discuss Washington State football and the upcoming game against Portland State.