The Cougs never held the lead and surrendered two separate four-run innings in Saturday’s loss to Fresno State, falling by a score of 12-5 for their 23rd loss of the season.
With the loss, WSU baseball (18-23, 7-14 Pac-12) lost its fifth consecutive series at the hands of the Bulldogs (27-15, 14-7 Mountain West). The Cougs got a taste of a program they will be playing for the next few seasons, as the program recently announced their plan to play in the Mountain West for the next two seasons.
Fresno State started the scoring in the top of the first, hitting two singles and drawing a walk to bring in the game’s first runner. That had been the only score of the first three innings, but the first big inning for the Bulldogs came in the top of the fourth.
Ben Newton started off the top of the frame with a double. He immediately scored by way of a Murf Gray double. A walk and sacrifice bunt were followed by two singles, a fielder’s choice and a third single to drive in the second through fourth runs of the half-inning.
Finding themselves down 5-0 quickly, the Cougs did their best to replicate the Bulldogs’ success, starting their half-inning with back-to-back doubles, just like their counterparts.
While they added two more base runners via a walk and hit by pitch, the one run scored by the second double to start the inning had been the only run that came across for WSU.
Still down, WSU starting pitcher Connor Wilford got out of the fifth inning clean, but got into more trouble to start the sixth inning. The first three batters he faced in the inning got on, scoring one run in the process.
To get his first out of the frame, he allowed the second run on a sacrifice fly. After hitting a batter, striking another out and giving up yet another double to Newton, Kevin Haynes relieved Wilford of his duties.
Giving up two separate big innings, Wilford finished with a line of 5.2 innings pitched, nine earned runs, 11 hits, four walks and three strikeouts, increasing his season ERA to 5.90 and bringing his record to 3-6.
Haynes pitched the rest of the game, allowing three more runs to come across over his 3.1 innings, however, those runs did not make a difference in the game’s result given the measly two runs the WSU offense scored.
The 10-run loss came together due to a combination of miscues, including nine runners left on base thanks to a teamwide .143 batting average with runners on, two errors by fielders and five walks allowed by pitchers.
Despite the loss, the Cougs Conference record stayed stagnant, keeping WSU alive in contention for their first birth in the postseason Pac-12 Tournament, the final one with the current teams.
