A silence of the bats led to the demise of the WSU Cougars on Sunday as the team was swept in a doubleheader against its in-state rival. 

The Washington Huskies captured the first game of the doubleheader by a score of 2-1, hanging on to a one-run lead late in the game. A quality start by junior Tanner Chleborad was spoiled by the WSU offense’s inability to capitalize on its opportunities. 

Chleborad dropped to 2-5 on the year despite allowing two runs on six hits over 7 1/3 innings of work. Only one of those runs was earned, though, and the Cougars committed a total of three errors in the game. 

Twice at the end of the game, the Cougars had chances to tie the game or take the lead, and neither time led to anything positive. In the top of the eighth, runners stood at first and second in with two outs, and junior P.J. Jones grounded out to end the inning. Jones came to the plate after sophomore Troy Rallings entered the game to clean up the mess senior reliever Trevor Dunlap had made in the inning. 

Rallings ran into trouble of his own in the ninth inning, but he regrouped to earn his sixth save of the year. After striking out junior Yale Rosen to start the inning, Rallings hit redshirt sophomore Nick Tanielu with a pitch and then surrendered a single to redshirt sophomore Ben Roberts. With those two runners on, junior Ian Sagdal struck out for the second out, but during the next at-bat, Tanielu and Roberts stole second and third base to get into scoring position. Rallings fanned sophomore Matt Mendenhall to foil the comeback. 

The Cougars did not get on the board until the sixth inning against the Huskies’ starter, junior Tyler Davis, who earned his ninth victory of the season. Davis limited WSU to one run on five hits in seven innings. 

In Game 2, junior Jeff Brigham carried a no-hitter through four innings, and the Huskies won again, 2-0. Although Sagdal singled to break the drought in the fifth, the Cougars could not mount any sort of offense in the nightcap. WSU totaled six hits in the game and was 1-for-12 with runners on base. 

Sophomore Austin Rei continued to wreak havoc on the Cougar pitching staff, hitting a two-run double off of senior Jason Monda in bottom of fourth to put the Huskies ahead. That hit was enough to chase Monda from the game, forcing the Cougars to bring in senior Kellen Camus from the bullpen. Rei hit a three-run homer Friday night in the first game of the series. 

Consecutive hits with two outs in the top of the sixth inning brought up the power-hitting Rosen, who jumped on the first pitch of the at-bat and roped a ball to center field. Unfortunately for WSU, the ball hung up just long enough for the center fielder to snag it and end the threat. 

With a shutout through six innings, Brigham trotted out to the mound for the seventh, but hit Roberts with a pitch to lead off the inning. The Huskies elected to go to the bullpen after that and the lead stayed where it was. 

The Cougars’ bullpen did its fair share to keep the deficit at two runs heading into the ninth inning. Camus and freshman Ian Hamilton combined for 4 1/3 shutout innings, but it wasn’t enough. Rallings pitched the ninth inning and shut the door on the Cougars for his seventh save and second of the day. 

Junior Andrew Ely went 5-for-8 on the day for the Huskies.