Washington State head baseball coach Marty Lees is leaving his starting rotation unchanged to finish off the Al Ogletree Classic this weekend. Redshirt sophomore left-hander Damon Jones will start Friday against Houston Baptist (3-2), with freshman right-hander Parker McFadden starting Saturday against Prairie View A&M.

Freshman right-hander Ryan Ward will close out the Al Ogletree Classic for the Cougars against Houston Baptist on Sunday.

Lees knows his young team, comprised of 23 underclassmen, are still working through their first few games at the D-I level and growing pains are expected.

“I still think we’re learning from our team,” Lees said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I think one of the biggest things is we’ve got quite a few freshmen who finally got to touch the diamond and play a D-I game. We did things each game that we can learn from. The focus we went into our last game with the idea of trust your training and compete at the plate, compete on the mound and never give up and you’ll get a chance.”

Senior left-hander Matthew McCollough (1-0) will start for the Huskies on Friday with junior right-hander Julian Griego (1-0) taking the mound on Sunday.

First pitch for the Cougars and Huskies is set for 1 p.m. PST on Friday. Start times for Saturday and Sunday are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 10 a.m. respectively.

Reporting by Lars Hanson