Although the weather was cold, the bats of the WSU baseball team reminded everyone of the scorching Pullman summers as they defeated UC Riverside 11-3.

Offense is what dictated the game. The Cougars (5-4) were led by the bats of senior Ian Sagdal and freshmen Wes Hatten and Shane Matheny.

Sagdal had a career day as he drove in five runs for the Cougars, going 3-3 with a triple, a double, a base on balls and was hit by a pitch.

“Coach Ross talked about the plan before the game yesterday and he was telling us that we weren’t swinging at enough curveballs and change-ups,” Sagdal said. “We just had a great plan of using that oppo-gap and swinging at pitches that we haven’t typically been swinging at, so that was good to see.”

Head Coach Donnie Marbut was happy with what he saw from his team.

“Ian’s been around for a long time and kind of been in different roles throughout his career at Washington State and we’ve always thought he’s been a talented player and that I kind of think right now it’s his time,” Marbut said.

Hatten made personal history in the fourth inning, as he crushed his first career home run over the left-centerfield wall.

“Early on I saw that ball was running in, so after the 1-0 count my second at bat, I just sat middle in and I got the pitch,” Hatten said.

Although the hitters put on a show for the fans, the pitching also made sure it got its two-cents in this game. Senior starting pitcher Sean Hartnett had a strong game as he went six innings only giving up three runs on seven hits and recording six strikeouts. He earned the win for his efforts.

“I did some good things,” Hartnett said. “I feel like there’s some stuff I could’ve done better, but you know I got my job done.”

Hartnett also did a strong job at limiting damage. There were several jams he got into that he was able to work out of. One such occasion occurred in the top of the fifth inning where he got into a bases-loaded, one-out jam and was able to escape without letting UC Riverside (5-5) score a run.

“You know you just got to clear what already happened,” Hartnett said. “Can’t control what happened and you just got to move on and focus on the next pitch.”

Some of the freshmen on the team had solid games and Marbut noticed.

“They’re just pretty good players,” Marbut said. “They’re some good ones and obviously you want to talk about the home run first, Wes (Hatten) spun out and he’s coming in to a zone. I think the left side of our infield, they’re pretty good players, Shane Matheny and Jack Strunc.”

The Cougars’ red-hot offense and stellar pitching made for a strong opening day for the fans. Game two of the four-game series will begin at 6 p.m. tonight. There will be a live stream of the game available on wsucougars.com.