After surrendering four third-inning runs, a late surge pushed the WSU baseball team past the Seattle Redhawks 9-4 on Wednesday afternoon.

The Cougars (16-18, 2-10) picked up a win for the first time in five games as they climbed their way back into the contest behind six scoreless innings from the fourth inning onward.

“There’s no question we’ve been struggling a little bit,” Head Coach Marty Lees said. “I thought we had a really good conversation with our team yesterday. It lasted about an hour, just to talk about the things that we could do … I thought they came out and did a really good job today.”

WSU got on the board early with two quick runs in the first inning. After sophomore shortstop Andres Alvarez and freshman second baseman Dillon Plew reached base, sophomore outfielder Justin Harrer laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the players into scoring position.

The next batter, junior third baseman Shane Matheny, singled to right center to drive in Alvarez and Plew and put the Cougars in front 2-0.

The Redhawks (12-22-1) struck back in the third inning. WSU’s starting pitcher, freshman left-hander A.J. Block, was tagged for four runs in the frame and was subsequently pulled after just two and two-thirds innings of work.

Despite his short start, Block was picked up by a spectacular performance from the bullpen. Junior right-hander Colby Nealy dealt two and one-thirds innings of perfect baseball after entering the game with two outs in the third.

Nealy was followed by two clean innings from redshirt freshman Davis Baillie, who made just his second appearance of the season after sitting out last year to recover from Tommy John surgery. The young right-hander from Woodinville picked up the win on Wednesday as the first in his collegiate career.

“A.J. started out pretty good, but got into a little trouble,” Lees said. “We had a couple kids follow him. Davis Baillie got out and got some innings, we have been waiting for him for a year now. He’s got a lot of ground balls in him. We picked him up, he made pitches, and then [Ryan] Walker came in and did what we know he can do.”

The Cougars started their climb back in the bottom of the fifth, as Plew came in to score on a double play ball off the bat of Matheny.

WSU added another run in the sixth inning to tie the game at four and then took the lead for good on a two-out RBI double down the left field line by junior designated hitter Blake Clanton in the seventh inning.

Leading 6-4, the Cougars broke the game wide open in the bottom of the eighth, as they tacked on three insurance runs, the first of which came on freshman catcher Cal Waterman’s first collegiate home run.

Junior right-hander and closer Scotty Sunitsch fired a scoreless ninth to secure the 9-4 win.

WSU’s next test is a home series against rival University of Washington. The series kicks off on at 5 p.m. on Friday night and will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network.