Head coach Nathan Choate said that games are decided by one or two pitches. You just don’t know which pitches they are going to be.
Unfortunately for WSU baseball, the most noteworthy pitch of the day was perhaps WSU men’s basketball coach David Riely’s ceremonial first pitch. Riley tagged a fastball on the inside corner on a sunny Pullman day.
That was about the most exciting moment for the 959 people at Bailey-Brayton Field Sunday afternoon as WSU baseball (17-17, 7-11 Pac-12) lost to the California Golden Bears (20-14, 8-10) 8-2, allowing 17 Cal hits.
Senior right-hander Duke Brotherton was saddled with his second loss of the season as he allowed four runs on eight hits, struck out three and walked one in 4.0 innings.
Cal capitalized on junior shortstop Jack Weise’s error to score the first run. Weise picked up a racing grounder off the bat of Cal freshman Ryan Tayman, but dropped it, allowing junior Peyton Schulze to score.
Cal took a 1-0 lead into the third inning where freshman Jarren Advincula, younger brother of former WSU centerfielder Jonah Advincula, grounded into a double play. Caleb Lomavita was not ready to call it quits for the inning, doubling down the left-field line. Rodney Green Jr. drew a walk, setting up Schulze’s RBI single to lead 2-0.
Crew Parke led off the bottom of the third with a double, advanced to third on a Cole Cramer groundout and scored on a Max Hartman groundout to cut the Cal lead in half.
In the fourth, Jag Burden made himself a burden on the Cougs, tracing a liner down the leftfield line to spark a two-out run. PJ Moutzouridis doubled down with a double of his own to score Burden.
Grounding out to a double play last time up, Advincula hit the ball hard and got a little bit of luck. Weise tried to backhand the ball, dropped it, picked it up and threw too late. Lomavita tested Weise’ resilience with another shot to directly to him. Cramer hit the deck as he was in the vicinity of the ball, but Weise was still late on the throw as Moutzouridis scored to take a 4-1 Cal lead.
The Cougs threatened in the bottom of the fourth as Joey Kramer singled, Alan Shibley slapped the ball to the right field wall for a double and Weise walked to load the bases.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Crew Parke could not clutch up grounding out to the shortstop on the first pitch.
The Cougs turned to Kevin Haynes in relief. Haynes pitched 3.0+ innings with three earned runs on five hits, one strikeout and three walks.
Haynes pitched a clean fifth thanks to two notable defensive plays. After two drops, Weise redeemed himself with an across-the-body throw with two on and one out. Alan Shibley summoned warp nine for a running grab in left to end the Cal threat.
Haynes ran into trouble in the sixth. Advincula got the best of an 0-1 pitch and cranked it over the centerfield his brother patrolled for the Cougars last year for his third career home run.
Three straight Cal singles paved the way for Cal’s sixth run and second of the inning. The Golden Bears were sitting golden with a 6-1 lead entering the bottom of the sixth.
Kramer made his bat known with a double and Shibley walked to set up Weise’s RBI single. Parke struck out and the Cougs stranded runners at the corners with one run to show for it.
Haynes began the eighth inning by hitting Lomavita, who left Friday’s game after sustaining a ball to the neck. With no serious injury, he was back in the lineup Sunday and went 3-for-5 with two doubles.
Choate chose senior Jack Lee to relieve Haynes. Lee threw a wild pitch to Green Jr. which catcher Jacob Morrow could not locate as he frantically looked from his left to his right, searching for the pitch. Lomavita advanced to second amidst the chaos and came running home about a minute later after Green Jr. had liftoff over the fence. Cal 8 WSU 2.
Ryan Orr entered the game and found the Cougars’ final five outs while allowing no runs, two hits, one walk and three strikeouts. After allowing a lead-off double and a walk in the ninth inning, Orr struck out three straight Golden Bears to end the threat much to the WSU “chair-enthusiatis” delight.
There would be no “too little, too late” ninth-inning surge in this one. Kramer and Shibley struck out swinging, Swarts rocketed one through the gap for a single and advanced to second on an awry pick-off attempt. Weise struck out swinging.
The Cougs were shut out in seven of nine innings.
Wazzu put runners on first and second in the ninth, but Cal retired Trey Cruz and Logan Johnstone to sweep the Cougs and wave goodbye to Pullman for the last time as Pac-12 foes.
WSU dropped to eighth place in the Pac-12 Conference, getting leapfrogged by the Golden Bears. The Cougs hit the road to face Grand Canyon at 7 p.m. Wednesday and play the Arizona Wildcats over the weekend.
