Ablend of timely hitting and clutch pitching in the late innings propelled the WSU baseball team to 5-4 and 6-3 wins over No. 30 Washington in Friday and Saturday’s games.

The Cougars (18-19, 4-11) dropped Sunday’s finale 7-1 but clinched their first Pac-12 series win over the Huskies (21-16, 8-7) and took two-of-three from their rivals for the second time in as many years.

Game 1

James Rudkin collected four of the Cougars’ 15 hits as WSU took game one of the series 5-4 from UW in an 11-inning thriller.

The Cougars struggled early on offense, striking out four times through the first three innings.

“Early, I didn’t like [the usual WSU offense] at all,” WSU Head Coach Marty Lees said. “It was really horrendous. Our approach was bad.”

WSU finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Junior outfielder Blake Clanton doubled off the wall in deep left center field and reached third on a sacrifice bunt from freshman centerfielder Danny Sinatro. Freshman catcher Cal Waterman followed with a shallow fly ball to left field to score Clanton on a close play at the plate.

A home run from UW junior catcher Joey Morgan off WSU junior right-hander Colby Nealy evened the score at one in the top of the sixth, before the Cougars retook the lead a half-inning later.

Freshman second baseman Dillon Plew led off the frame with a single and advanced to second base on a fielder’s choice one batter later. After junior third baseman Shane Matheny walked, Rudkin singled on a hard ground ball through the left side of the infield to score Plew from second and put the Cougars back in front 2-1.

WSU added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh. Waterman led off the inning with a single and reached second on a sacrifice bunt from sophomore shortstop Andres Alvarez. After Alvarez advanced to third on a groundout by Plew, sophomore outfielder Justin Harrer, Matheny and Rudkin followed with three straight two-out singles to make it a 4-1 game.

Junior right-hander Ryan Walker came out for the eighth inning after recording the final two outs in the seventh, but promptly walked the leadoff batter and allowed Morgan a long home run over the left field wall, his second of the game, to bring UW within a run.

“Joey Morgan is a good player and I’m glad I don’t have to look at him after this year,” Lees said.

Junior left-hander and closer Scotty Sunitsch replaced Walker after he walked the next hitter. A wild pitch put a runner on second with two outs before Sunitsch allowed a single up the middle to tie the game at four.

Alvarez led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Plew attempted to bunt him over to second but failed to put the ball in fair territory with two strikes. Harrer then singled to right and the Huskies intentionally walked Matheny to load the bases with one out.

UW brought in a sixth infielder from the outfield as Rudkin stepped up to the plate. The first baseman tapped a ground ball to the Huskies’ shortstop on the first pitch of his at-bat and junior outfielder J.J. Hancock flew out to right field to leave the bases loaded for the Cougars.

Sunitsch stifled the Huskies’ hitters in the 10th and 11th innings of the game, allowing no runs through three and two thirds innings.

“[Sunitsch] was nails for us,” Lees said

With the bases again loaded in the bottom of the 11th, sophomore catcher Cory Meyer walked with one out to make the winning run and secure a 5-4 victory.

Game 2

Sinatro drove in four runs, including a bases-clearing triple, to lead the Cougars to a 6-3 win on Saturday.

Junior left-hander Cody Anderson started the game for WSU and faced early trouble from the Husky offense.

With a runner on first and two outs in the top of the first inning, Morgan doubled to the right centerfield gap to push UW out to an early 1-0 lead, but his RBI was the Huskies’ only run scored off Anderson.

Anderson worked five and two thirds innings and scattered six hits against three strikeouts to lower his season ERA to 2.39.

The WSU offense was silent until it exploded with five runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Matheny lead off the inning with a walk and Rudkin doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. After Hancock walked, Clanton ripped a single through the right side of the infield to tie the game at one.

Sinatro followed with a bases-clearing line-drive triple into the right center gap to push WSU to a 4-1 lead. Waterman then grounded out to shortstop to score Sinatro and give the Cougars a commanding four-run lead.

WSU added another run in the sixth inning to go up 6-1.

UW scored two runs in the top of the seventh off WSU redshirt freshman right-hander Davis Baillie to cut WSU’s lead to three, but Walker came on with two outs in the eighth and earned a four-out save to secure the 6-3 win.

Game 3

Plew homered and racked up three hits, but the rest of the Cougar offense looked lost as WSU fell 7-1 in the series finale on Sunday.

Plew’s solo home run in the bottom of the sixth was the Cougars’ only source of offense in the game. He made three of the four total hits for WSU.

UW sophomore right-hander Joe DeMers tossed eight innings of one-run ball and stifled WSU while the Huskies’ offense scored early and often.

Freshman left-hander Isaac Mullins started the game for WSU but lasted just two innings after he gave up one run on 34 pitches. WSU used seven pitchers in the contest.

A four-run sixth inning for UW increased its lead to 6-0 and effectively put the WSU offense out of reach.

Plew doubled in the bottom of the ninth but was stranded as the Huskies coasted to a 7-1 win.