WSU baseball (10-7, 2-3 Pac-12) beat UCLA (6-11, 1-4) 12-5 in Los Angeles for the first time since 2014, breaking an 11-game losing streak.
The Cougars won behind a persistent offensive effort that generated 12 runs on nine hits and walked a season-high 13 times.
Senior right-hander Duke Brotherton turned in a pair of career highs in innings pitched (5.0) and strikeouts (five) in relief.
Senior right-handed starter Connor Wilford, fresh off his own pair of career-highs, March 9 versus Utah (7.2 innings and eight strikeouts), struggled against the Bruins. Wilford allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 3.0 innings. He struck out two, walked two and hit one with a pitch white also committing a fielding error.
The Bruins did the majority of their damage in the first inning, loading up the bases and bringing all three runners home to take a 3-1 lead after the first. With runners on the corners, Wilford flung a fastball past the bat of Payton Brennan to strike him out swinging and end the inning.
The Cougar offense scored in five of nine innings, including a three-run second inning to tie the game at 4-4, a four-run fourth to take the lead and a three-run ninth.
Wazzu had just one extra-base hit in their 12-5 win but found their best offensive weapon to be their opponents’ mistakes. The Cougs walked 13 times, as seven of their nine hitters drew at least one, four drew at least two and two, Cole Cramer and Crew Parke, drew three walks.
Sophomore outfielder Max Hartman continued his strong start to the season with by reaching base four times on two hits a walk and a hit by pitch. His 3 RBI led WSU.
Wilford pitched a clean second inning but allowed Roch Cholowsky, the Bruins’ third-inning lead-off hitter, aboard on a double. Cholowsky advanced to third on a Wiford throwing error and scored on a Sac-Fly to tie the game 4-4.
Senior shortstop Kyle Russell set the example for the Cougars in the top of the fourth with a lead-off walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, made it to third on a Joey Kramer single and scored on a Trey Cruz sac-fly.
Cramer drew his second walk of the day to load the bases and the Bruins tapped back into their pen.
Matthew Gobel, the Bruins 6-foot-5 right-hander could not find his control. He threw five pitches and hit three Cougar batters, allowing each of his three inherited runners to score as he hit Nate Swarts, Parke and Hartman.
The Bruins turned to another lengy son of California in 6-foot-4 inch tall Luke Rodriguez. The Shafter, California native pitched 4.1 innings and allowed one run on one hit with one strikeout and two walks.
He put out the fire in the fourth by striking out Russell looking.
He faced the minimum in three innings and only ran into trouble in the top of the eighth when he walked two (Cramer and Parke who each walked three times), setting up a Hartman RBI single to extend the WSU lead to 9-4.
Brotherton came out of the pen for the Cougs in the bottom of the fourth and proceeded to cruise.
With a four-run lead in the fourth, he struck out one and walked one in a scoreless frame. He faced the minimum twice and no more than four hitters an inning through five innings.
“When you go out there and put a zero and your offense puts up a couple of runs, it just makes you want to go and get more zeros,” Brotherton said.
Brotherton benefited from several excellent defensive plays, including a 5-4-3 double play. On a 2-0 pitch, Brotherton induced a sharp grounder to Cramer parallel to the mound who gunned the ball to Parke at second to get the runner before Parke flung it to first where Kramer’s extended glove awaited to snag the ball and close the inning.
“Having as legit of a defense that we have, I mean it’s just awesome seeing them make those plays,” Brotherton said.
To pad their lead in the ninth, WSU found its lone extra-base hit of the game. Parke and Carsen Taggart reached on walks and Russell reached on a single, setting up transfer junior Trey Cruz. Cruz smacked the ball to the wall in the left field corner for the 3 RBI double.
WSU lefthander Carson Judd pitched a clean ninth inning to secure WSU’s first win in Los Angeles since 2014.
WSU closes out the UCLA series with the rubber match at noon Sunday. The UCLA Live Stream will broadcast the game and WSU radio coverage will be broadcast on the Varsity Network.
