The WSU baseball team dug an early hole against Gonzaga tonight and despite a three run ninth inning, fell to the Bulldogs 9-4 in Spokane.

The Bulldogs had a six run lead after three innings and never looked back. The road loss against the Bulldogs marks the fifth straight loss for the Cougars and the 10th loss in their last 11 games.

Gonzaga (21-12, 11-4) started the game off with two quick runs in the bottom of the first and kept the Cougars (15-18, 2-10) off the board for the first third of the ballgame. WSU scored in the fourth, but the one run did nothing to slow the Zags’ offensive onslaught.

The Cougars starting pitcher, freshman left-hander Isaac Mullins, gave up two runs on five hits through two innings. Mullins was followed by junior right-hander Joe Rosenstein who had his worst outing of the season.

Rosenstein failed to get an out as he walked four straight batters and left the bases loaded for his replacement. Rosenstein was charged for four runs, three of which were earned.

Following Gonzaga’s four run third inning, WSU was able to slow down the Bulldog offense to just three runs over the final two thirds of the game.

The Cougar offense put together a short rally in the top of the ninth as they loaded the bases with no outs to start the inning. Sophomore infielder Andres Alvarez then cut the lead to six with an RBI-double to left. A wild pitch brought in one more run, but the game would end there and the Cougars walked away disappointed yet again.

The Cougars will next face Seattle University at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at Bailey-Brayton Field before taking on rival University of Washington for an upcoming weekend series. WSU will need to produce a drastically different performance on Wednesday if they want to end their five game losing streak.

Reporting by Nick Thomas