Confidence is on the rise as the Washington State baseball team got revenge against Gonzaga on Tuesday night, claiming the 4-2 victory, giving Head Coach Donnie Marbut his 300th career win.

Junior infielder Patrick McGrath was the hero of the game for the Cougars as he blasted a three-run homer in the sixth that cleared the left field wall. It was his first home run of the season for McGrath, who was pinch-hitting for sophomore Wes Leow.

“I was just grateful I have a great coach that has faith in me to me in a situation like that,” he said. “It feels good, I’m just glad to help the team win.”

Coach Marbut said after the game that McGrath is “very, very valuable” to the team, even though his stats do not jump off the page.

“I’m a huge Pat McGrath fan, I’m hoping that will get him going a little bit,” Marbut said.

The Cougars only collected five hits in the game but made them count. Marbut acknowledged that they were out hit by the Bulldogs, but cited good team play as one reason why they won.

Senior infielder Ian Sagdal had another solid performance against the Bulldogs and went 2-3 with a double and a run scored in Tuesday’s game. Sagdal rounded home when freshman Shane Matheny drove him in with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

Gonzaga managed to tie things up in the top of the sixth when junior Caleb Wood’s sacrifice fly to center field sent sophomore Jeff Bohling home. But McGrath made the most of his chance in the bottom of the frame, putting the Cougars in the lead for good.

Freshman Scotty Sunitsch pitched well in his first career start, facing the minimum in his five innings of work. Sunitsch allowed two hits and one run while striking out two and walking one. Coach Marbut said that even though Sunitsch left the game soon after giving up a hit and a walk that he should still feel good about his performance.

WSU relied on its bullpen to finish out the game, with freshman Matt Bower ending up with the win, his sixth of the season. Senior Sam Triece came in for Bower in the seventh and managed to get the team out of two bases-loaded situations with double plays in back-to-back innings. Triece said winning the road series against Cal helps gave the team confidence to make those kinds of important plays.

“Everything’s really contagious for us,” he said. “We’ve been hitting a lot better, pitching a lot better, a lot better defense. As soon as a couple guys show that it’s not that hard to make some big plays it kind of opens up the door for everybody else to do the same thing.”

UW Series

The Cougars will go straight from hosting one in-state rival to another as the Washington Huskies will be coming into Pullman for a three-game Mom’s Weekend series.

UW (18-12, 5-7 Pac-12) will come into Pullman riding its first-ever road sweep of Stanford last week. The Huskies outscored the Cardinal 22-3 in the series, and they posted first-inning leads in each of the three games.

Junior centerfielder Braden Bishop went 6-8 in the series with six runs and two RBIs – a performance that earned him Pac-12 Player of the Week honors. Bishop leads UW with a .344 batting average, 11 stolen bases and a .556 slugging percentage on the year.

The Cougars can expect to face two of UW’s best pitchers in their first two games. The Huskies’ Thursday probable starter is freshman Noah Bremer, who is 4-2 on the year and leads the team with a 1.80 ERA. The Cougars will then face senior Tyler Davis, who is 5-2 with a 1.89 ERA and leads the team with 44 strikeouts.

WSU will send out two of its strongest pitchers to face their rivals, with seniors Sean Hartnett and Joe Pistorese getting the starts on Thursday and Friday. Hartett is 3-3 this year with a 3.63 ERA, while Pistorese is 4-3 with a 2.68 ERA and is coming off a complete game shutout against No. 12 Cal last weekend.

After giving up only four hits, all singles, and striking out six in the road win, Pistorese was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week – the second time he has earned that honor in his career.

With a home crowd full of Cougar moms this weekend, the WSU players will have even more incentive to play well and win the series against their rivals. Maybe junior Patrick McGrath, the hero of the game against Gonzaga, can electrify the crowd once again with another home run.

“It’s going to be a packed house, I’m looking forward to seeing my mom,” he said. “Now we have the Dawgs, and we want to sweep them. That’s our job this weekend.”

The Pac-12 Networks will televise the three-game series, with Game 1’s first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.