With Kevin Haynes on the bump, WSU baseball (12-8, 2-4 Pac-12) took down Seattle U (6-14, 2-4 WAC) for the second time in as many days by a final score of 10-3.
Right away, Haynes had to dig deep to get out of the first inning relatively unscathed. A one-out double followed by a single made it first and third. While a caught stealing eliminated some of the base traffic, a single scored the game’s first run.
That was all Seattle U scored in the inning, as on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded, he forced a fly out to left field to close out the inning.
Kevin Haynes seeing double during his 3.0 inning outing against Seattle U, March 20, in Pullman, Wash.
Haynes pitched a clean second inning and gave up one run in the third before being pulled for Duke Brotherton. His 3.0 innings kept the game tied and gave the Cougs a chance to win.
WSU got their first lead of the game in the bottom of the second. After Jacob Morrow doubled, Griffen Sotomayor hit his first career home run as he drove a 1-1 pitch over the right field wall. It was just his 10th at-bat of the season and 18th of his Coug career, accounting for a majority of his all-time production
A trio of Cougs embrace at home plate after Griffen Sotomayor’s home run, March 20, in Pullman, Wash.
“It was a really good time out there. [He] left a pitch over the middle of the plate and I got a good swing off,” Sotomayor said. “All the fellas in the dugout smiling and laughing. Had a good time.”
Sotomayor was one of nine WSU batters to tally at least one hit in the win, with Casen Taggart, Joey Kramer, Cole Cramer and Nate Swarts all having multi-hit games.
Swarts continues his season-long streak of getting on base. He extended his streak to a team-leading 19 games with a double and single. With his pair of singles, Kramer is up to a nine-game hitting streak, right on the edge of a double-digit streak.
With back-to-back wins over the Redhawks, the Cougs have won multiple games in a row for the fifth separate time of the young season. With a three-game home set against Arizona State this weekend, they have the potential to best their season-best winning streak of 3 games when they took down Utah Tech, Kentucky and Kansas in order.
“Feeling good. Good two wins,” Sotomayor said. “[Looking to] keep it rolling. Have a good weekend.”
Against Seattle U, the Cougs had one of their best hitting performances of the season. Going 7-for-11 (.636) with runners in scoring position and 8-for-16 (.500) with runners on in general, the team had clutch hitting in their genes.
In 2024, strikeouts have not been the forte of the WSU pitching staff. But, in Wednesday’s win, all five pitchers who appeared for the Cougs had at least one punchout and as a unit, they tallied nine K’s.
The nine strikeouts are tied for the fourth-highest total of the current campaign with Connor Wilford and Chase Grillo both especially having good days, both striking out two batters in their respective 1.0 innings on the mound.
WSU’s homestand continues at 4:05 p.m. Friday for the first of a three-game set against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
