Washington State Baseball competes in their first conference matchup this weekend against San Diego State. WSU is coming off a rough series versus Texas State, where they lost three out of four games. The Cougars were within striking distance of the Bobcats for a majority of the games, lacking only a couple runs to completely change the series outcome.
The Aztecs also lost their last series against Saint Mary’s, allowing 23 runs in three games. San Diego State had a good stretch of games before this series, taking two out of three versus the University of Washington and handing No. 1 ranked UCLA their second loss of the season.
Both teams are heading into this matchups in a similar fashion. Whoever wins could use this series to get back on track and more importantly, back in the win column.
Here’s a breakdown of what to watch in this series:
WSU
One player that has to be highlighted is recently named Mountain West Freshman of the Week, Alexandre Giguère. The 5-foot-11 catcher from Levis, Quèbec City, Canada went off against Texas State, going 5-for-11 with three home runs and five RBIs. Behind the dish, Giguère was phenomenal, recording a fielding percentage of 0.976 and throwing out one runner against a Bobcat team that is aggressive on the basepaths.
Head coach Nathan Choate had high praise for Giguère and the other freshmen that have produced for WSU so far this season.
“[Pirello], Dane [Chavez], Giguère, Falke, and Trevor Smith. I mean the maturity that that group has together,” Choate said on the Cougar Baseball Podcast. “I think they’ve done a great job assimilating with the older guys.”
One of the “older guys” that has been hot at the plate recently is Gavin Roy. After starting the season 2-for-18, Roy has been on a tear recently, going 10-for-20 with seven RBIs in his last six games. Defensively, the starting shortstop for WSU has gotten better too. In his first six games, Roy committed four errors and a fielding percentage of .828. In his most recent six games, however, the senior has only recorded one error and earned a much better fielding percentage of .945. Roy is quietly turning into an on-base machine for WSU as they start playing conference games, where he will need to continue his hot streak.
One last player to highlight for WSU is reliever Scott Rienguette. After throwing a wild pitch that resulted in a walk-off in the Cal Poly series, Rienguette has been an incredibly solid arm out of the bullpen for the Cougs. In his last three outings, the redshirt-junior has tallied two saves while only allowing two runs over 5 ⅔ innings pitched. His most clutch save was in the lone win against Texas State, where he managed to get out of a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh and a one-out bases loaded situation in the eighth. In that outing Rienguette allowed just one run in a 2 ⅔ inning save for the Cougs. Consistency out of the bullpen is just what WSU needs as they get set to start facing off against conference foes.
San Diego State
The Aztecs have had an up and down season so far. They have reached highs of beating first ranked UCLA, but also dealt with the lows of losing a series to Saint Mary’s.
Offensively they are led by a pair of former Oregon State Beavers that transferred to San Diego State this past offseason. Jabin Trosky is a redshirt-junior from Carmel, California that has tallied 25 hits, four RBIs and 17 runs in 16 games played this season. The main power threat for the Aztecs is Washington native, Tyce Peterson, who leads the team with three home runs.
One youngster to look out for is freshman Max Farrell, who was named Mountain West Preseason Freshman of the Year by Perfect Game. So far the kid from Carlsbad, California has recorded an OPS of .819 and a team leading two triples.
As for pitching, the Aztecs have a wide variety of statistics. Junior righty Rohan Lettow serves as the ace of their starters and has put together a very solid 2026 campaign, tallying an ERA of 2.53 and 31 strikeouts. His best outing on the season came against BYU, where Lettow allowed zero runs through 6 ⅔ innings pitched and racked up 10 strikeouts.
Out of the bullpen, Aidan Russell has been dominant this season for San Diego State. This season the righty has recorded two saves, 20 strikeouts and an impressive ERA of 0.63 through 14 ⅓ innings pitched. WSU will need to chase after starters to avoid facing off against Russell in high leverage situations.
In game one, WSU will take on San Diego State at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 13 at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The Cougs and Aztecs will battle it out in game two at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. And finally to close it out, game three takes place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 15.
