The 14-8 Nevada Wolf Pack head into Pullman for a three-game series to face off against the 10-13 Washington State Cougars. This matchup features two teams that lay atop the Mountain West Conference, sharing a 4-2 conference record.
Here is a breakdown of what to watch for in this three-game series.
Washington State
WSU is coming off a rough midweek matchup against Gonzaga, where pitching struggled heavily. The Cougs allowed a season-high 19 runs and recorded a season-low in strikeouts with only one. WSU will need better outings from their bullpen as they get set to face off against a high-powered Nevada offense.
One bright showing for the Cougs is former USC commit Matt Priest. The freshman has been on fire in the batters box as of late, batting .363 with nine RBIs and three home runs in his last five games. These stats earned the 6-foot outfielder Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors. This marks the second time this season a Coug has received that award.
Head coach Nathan Choate shared Priest’s mental growth when approaching the game of baseball.
“He’s hard on himself. He beats himself up,” Choate said on the WSU Baseball Podcast. “There was a time where Matt Priest would have swung at a fastball and been thinking about man I’m down on myself. The fact that he got present and said, ‘Hey, I took a bad swing, get to the next one. I’m gonna find a way to make contact.’ I just think that’s growth.”
In this moment, Choate is referencing the walkoff hit Priest made in game two of the GCU series.
One last thing to note for WSU is freshman outfielder Trevor Smith has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury. Hopefully the Cougs will get Smith back in a time to get his bat back in the lineup.
Nevada
Offense, offense, offense. The Wolf Pack offense has been electric this season, leading the Mountain West with a .319 team batting average, 31 combined home runs and a slugging percentage of .511. Nationally, the Wolf Pack ranks No. 38 in slugging percentage and No. 27 in batting average. In simple terms: Nevada gets on base and hits a lot of home runs.
Leading the charge for the Wolf Pack, with 34 hits, is senior two-way player Jayce Dobie. In 20 games played this season, Dobie has tallied a team-leading eight doubles and 48 total bases, while also recording 10 strikeouts in five starts pitching this season.
Three outfielders, Lee Matsuzaki, Dominic Quiban and Jacob Doyle, are all having fantastic seasons as well. Matsuzaki is currently batting .361 with an OPS of 1.025 in 2026. Quiban ranks second on the team in hits with 30 and a batting average of .353. Doyle has been the main power threat for the Wolf Pack, leading the team with an OPS of 1.169 and slugging percentage of .707. The 6-foot-7 junior from Sparks, Nevada, also leads the team in home runs with seven.
Overall, the offense does not have a single qualified hitter with a batting average under .250.
Pitching is a completely different story. The Wolf Pack have a team ERA of 7.32, third worst in the Mountain West. In their last three game series, Nevada pitching allowed 42 runs to Air Force. WSU will need to take advantage of poor pitching performances in order to keep pace with the high powered Wolf Pack offense.
Game one of this series starts at 4:05 p.m. on Friday, March 27, at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman Washington. Game two kicks off at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. Finally, the series wraps up with a 12:05 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 29.
