The Washington State baseball team was tasked with the job of cooling off the scorching Arizona bats to extend the Cougars’ streak of series wins, but WSU was only able to succeed in one of those areas after dropping the series 2-1 against the Wildcats.

Game 1 of the three game series was a power spree in the Wildcats’ favor as they beat the Cougars 14-5.

The Cougars sent out senior pitcher Sean Hartnett to open the series. However, Hartnett had a lot of trouble containing the overpowering Arizona offense. He gave up nine runs, seven of which were earned, over 4.1 innings.

The Cougars took an early lead with hits from redshirt sophomore outfielder Cooper Elliot, who had a one-out single, senior infielder Ian Sagdal, who nailed a double down the left field line, redshirt junior outfielder Ben Roberts, who scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly, and senior catcher P.J. Jones, who scored Sagdal on a two-out single to make the score 2-0.

Arizona responded with a couple of runs of their own in the third inning with a couple of base hits to tie the game at two.

The big inning for the first game was the fifth, where the Wildcats scored five runs with the help of a three-run home run. The Wildcats kept playing add-on for the rest of the game until they won by a score of 14-5.

WSU Head Coach Donnie Marbut voiced his opinion on how his pitcher was treated during the game and what he liked from the performance Hartnett put together.

“I think he got pinched there, I really do,” Marbut said. “I thought he was competing early and doing a good job in some tough situations with their hitters obviously doing a good job. I thought the zone was pretty small for him.”

The series continued on Saturday as the Cougars sent out senior Joe Pistorese to quell the sweltering Arizona bats. This game started out similarly to the first as the Cougars put up two early runs off the bats of Roberts and Sagdal.

While the first game was a power show for the Wildcats, the same could not be said of them in the second. Pistorese held them to only one run through six innings. In the seventh, they were able to get two more runs off of him to tie the game at 3-3. After that, senior pitcher Sam Triece came in to limit the damage.

Pistorese went 6.2 innings giving up three runs, but only two of them were earned. He finished the day with five strikeouts, two walks and gave up only six hits.

In the 7th inning, redshirt sophomore infielder Shea Donlin singled up the middle to drive in two more runs for the Cougars.

With a 5-3 lead in the 9th, WSU turned to its all-time saves leader Ian Hamilton to add on to his career total. He sat down the Wildcats 1-2-3 to give the Cougars the win by a score of 5-3.

Freshman outfielder Derek Chapman was a key performer in the game as he went 4-5 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. Chapman knew one way he could help the Cougs win the game was to keep getting on the base paths.

“However I can get my next 90 feet and get to home,” Chapman said. “That’s my focus, just get to the next base.”

A player that Marbut said was essential for the Cougar victory was Shane Matheny. Although the box score shows him going 0-2 with two walks, Marbut noted the defensive effort he gave.

“He’s fantastic,” Marbut said. “He kind of won the game for us today in the big scheme of things.”

Game 3 was a completely different story.

While the first two games were more all about what guys were doing at the plate, game three was about pitching, and pitching alone.

WSU’s pitching did not give up an earned run during the game, yet the Cougars still lost 2-0.

Freshman Ryan Walker got the nod for WSU and made the best of the start. Walker went seven innings giving up no runs and recording 7 strikeouts.

After Walker, freshman Scotty Sunitsch came into the game and got one out but left runners in scoring position. Triece came in and only needed one pitch to enduce a double play to end the Wildcats’ scoring threat.

In the 9th, the Cougars brought in Hamilton although it was not a save situation. He went three innings and only gave up one hit, but was dealt the loss because of two unearned runs charged to him.

In the top of the 11th, Hamilton gave up a high pop-up to right-center field that was dropped by the sophomore centerfielder Cameron Frost. That let in two runs for the Wildcats which ended up being the only scores of the game.

Although Walker did not get a decision from the game, his performance did not go unnoticed. Marbut voiced his pleasure with his starting pitcher.

“Ryan was fantastic today,” Marbut said. “He gave us everything we could want and more. Arizona is a fantastic offensive team and he just shut them out for seven innings and was just great.”

Walker was disappointed with the loss but knows that the team cannot harp on it if they want to keep winning ballgames.

“It is something that we got to get over,” Walker said. “Like the coach said, ‘it is gonna sting for a while, but as long as we stay as a team we will be fine.’”

While WSU did not win the series against Arizona, they did get one win in Pac-12 play and were able to cool off one of the best hitting offenses in the conference.

The next home series for the Cougars begins Friday against Oregon. The games will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Networks.