Sword conquered beast on Sunday at Bailey-Brayton Field, dashing the Cougars’ hopes of a three-game sweep of the USC Trojans. 

The game turned ugly late as the Trojans rallied for six runs in the top of the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie, eventually winning by a final score of 7-1. 

“I’m not pleased with the offense,” said Head Coach Donnie Marbut. “I think the offense is inconsistent, and they don’t cash in nearly enough. But anytime you’re winning series, that’s what you want to do. USC came in the hottest team in the conference, so to win the series with a chance to sweep on Sunday, I was excited about that, but obviously today you’re frustrated with the way Sunday’s game turned out.”

WSU junior starter Tanner Chleborad shut the Trojans out for the first four innings, and he made it through seven full innings before running into trouble in the top of the eighth inning. Junior infielder Dante Flores led off with a double that tailed away from junior left fielder Yale Rosen, who couldn’t hold on after diving for the ball. Chleborad walked the next two batters to load the bases, and it was at that point senior Kellen Camus came in for relief. 

The Trojans called on redshirt sophomore Bobby Stahel to pinch-hit against Camus, and Stahel was able to lay off a two-strike breaking ball that barely missed the zone. Camus missed with another breaking ball and then walked in the go-ahead run with a ball that was not close to the strike zone. 

“We feel like in that inning, we threw more strikes than were called, but you’ve got to compensate and adjust, and we’ve got to get the ball down,” Marbut said. “Obviously, we’re not even close on ball four, so that’s the frustrating part. It can go either way early in the at-bat, but you’ve got to come back and make the next pitch, and that’s not something we did.”

Senior infielder Kevin Swick followed with an RBI single that made the score 3-1 and kept the bases loaded. Then junior Garrett Stubbs hit a ball up the middle that was just out of the reach of a diving junior infielder Ian Sagdal at second base. That single drove in two more runs, and by the end of the inning the score was 7-1. 

The Cougars went down in order in the eighth and ninth inning, putting an end to any chances of a comeback. 

“There’s never a deficit you can’t overcome as long as you believe that you can,” Marbut said. “I’m not sure if that happened.”

Chances to score presented themselves earlier in the game for WSU, but the team could not make anything happen. The Cougars loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth with one out, while they still had a 1-0 lead, but neither of the next two hitters could do anything to drive in runs. The Trojans tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth inning. 

“We had our chances earlier in the game, a couple runners on second, bases loaded a couple times,” said redshirt sophomore outfielder Ben Roberts. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t cash in like they did that inning. They had guys in scoring position and knocked them in, and we just couldn’t figure out a way to stop them. Credit them, but we had our chances and didn’t come through.”

The Cougars continue their home stand on Friday with three games against Utah.