The WSU baseball team took advantage of the clear weather and a lot of offense as they beat the Texas State Bobcats 8-6 in the opener of a three-game weekend series in Pullman.

 The Cougs (3-7) opened the game’s scoring in the second inning when Yale Rosen hit a leadoff double and was plated by an Ian Sagdal groundout to second baseman Matt Smith two batters later.

WSU kept the momentum going into the bottom of the third, when they scored four runs to increase the lead to five.

The inning was highlighted by a two-out Nick Tanielu two-RBI single up the middle and then Rosen hitting the Coug’s first homerun of the season, a two-run shot to right field.

Texas State (9-4) tied the game after scoring five runs against Jason Monda in the sixth, the first earned runs he had allowed all season. The Bobcats scored on five hits and then again in the seventh with the sole run coming from catcher Tyler Pearson’s two-out RBI double.

However, the Cougars responded in the bottom of both of those innings, scoring one run in the sixth and then scoring two more in the seventh to set up the eventual final score of 8-6.

The winning run came off of a no-out Tanielu single that scored Stemp from second, who led off the inning with a single. It was Tanielu’s game-high third RBI and Stemp’s second run scored. Tanielu drove him in both times.

Matt Bower picked up his first win of the season despite allowing the sixth Bobcat’s run; he recorded an inning’s worth of work. Texas State Reliever Tyler Davenport pitched the seventh and eighth innings and earned his first loss of the season. Ian Hamilton pitched the ninth for the Cougs and picked up his second save.

Due to a likely chance of rain on Sunday, the Cougs may choose to wrap up the series against Texas State tomorrow with a double header.