May 21, 2000

Box Score

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Senior Ray Hattenburg went 5-for-5 with four runs scored and three RBI to close out his stellar career and starting pitcher Matt O'Brien notched his 10th win of the season to help lead the Washington State Cougars to a 16-9 Senior Day win over the Oregon State Beavers Sunday afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman.

All 11 seniors on the WSU roster contributed to the win in some way or form, with every hitter recording a hit and the three senior pitchers combining for a season-high 11 strikeouts. Before the game during the Senior Day ceremonies, each senior player received their diplomas because they were unable to walk at graduation because of a game in Seattle. The game concluded the 2000 campaign for both squads, with the Cougars finishing with a 20-36 record and putting 105 years of Washington State baseball in the books. With a 6-18 record in the Pac-10, the Cougs will finish ninth, but improved by two wins from 1999. The Cougs' third Pac-10 series of the win put the Beavers at 28-27 for the year and secured sixth place in the conference with a 9-15 mark.

O'Brien turned in another gutsy performance on the mound to become the first Cougar pitcher to win 10 games in a season since Kyle Kawabata went 11-3 on the mound in 1995. The senior lefty struck out a career high nine batters and scattered 10 hits over 7.1 innings to improve to 10-5 on the year and 2-0 for the weekend vs. Oregon State.

OSU starter James Atwood was saddled with the loss giving up 11 hits and seven runs in four innings of work.

The Cougars jumped out to an early 1-0 in the first inning. Hot-hitting Evan Hecker led the inning off with a double down the right field line. Hattenburg then tabbed his first hit of the afternoon to score Hecker from third and give the Cougs a 1-0 lead.

After OSU scored three runs off of three consecutive doubles in the top of the second, the Cougars battled back to score four runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead for good in the game. After senior catcher Ryan Smith led the inning off with a double to center field, senior shortstop Shawn Stevenson provided a RBI double and Hattenburg laced his second consecutive RBI single.

With O'Brien in control tossing four consecutive shutout innings from the third tell seventh, the Cougs continued to tack on runs. A four-run fifth inning expanded WSU's lead to 9-3. Redshirt freshman Stefan Bailie (Mesa, Wash.) provided the big blow of the inning with a two-run home run well over the scoreboard in left-center field. For Bailie, it capped a weekend of baseball in which he hit home runs in three consecutive games. His 12th longball of the year led the team for the year and tied the WSU freshman record set by Jason Grove in 1998.

The Beavers made a slight comeback with six runs in the seventh and eighth innings, but it wasn't good enough to overcome the efforts of the 11 seniors. Freshman Josh Barden and Jackson Coleman each hit two-run home runs in the top of the seventh, but a six-run outburst in the bottom of the eighth by the Cougars put the game out of reach.

Hattenburg scored the Cougs' first run of the eighth inning with a double down the right field line to score Stevenson all the way from first. With two outs and the bases loaded, senior Jordan Nilsen stepped to the plate as the lone senior on the day that had yet to record a hit. With a 3-1 count, the senior outfielder put a charge into a ball for his first career grand slam in his last collegiate at-bat. Smith then followed by driving a ball deep over the left field fence in his last collegiate at-bat for the back-to-back home runs.

Senior pitcher Les McTavish made his 74th career appearance to move into second place in the Cougar record books for all-time pitching appearances. Hard-throwing Reggie Rivard then put the Beavers down with two strikeouts in the top of the ninth to seal the 16-9 victory. Ironically it was Stevenson who made the assist on the last out, as the senior shortstop who only missed four games in his Cougar career, ended up with 655 career assists, second all-time at WSU.

The banner day by the Cougar seniors was led by Hattenburg who recorded the first five-hit game of his illustrious Cougar career. The senior utility player finished the season with a team-leading .359 average and ended with 255 career hits (5th all-time) and a .354 career average (9th all-time). Senior Zach Bode was 2-for-3, Steve Curran was 2-for-4 and Smith was also 2-for-4 in their last games as a WSU Cougar. Hecker capped a stretch of six consecutive multi-hit games with a 2-for-5 day at the plate and raised his season average to .281 by going 14-for-26 over the last six games.

"We knew it would be our last time together and we all thought about how special of a day this really is," said Hattenburg after the game. "We all wanted that last hit, that last winning feeling here as we end our careers. Man it was a great day that I will never forget. I couln't have wanted to go out on any better of performance."

The Cougars are now 2,246-1237-17 in 105 years of collegiate baseball, ranking in the top five among all Division I programs.

OSU   030  000  420 -  9  12 2
WSU   104  041  06x - 16  18 2
James Atwood, Craig Hays (5), Mark Newell (6), Chris Wilkins (7),
Mark McLemore (8), and Chris Biles.
Matt O'Brien, Les McTavish (8), Reggie Rivard (9), and Ryan Smtih.
W - O'Brien (10-5),L - Atwood (3-6), S - None, HR - Barden (8), Coleman (1), Bailie (12)
Nilsen (5), Smith (2).
T - 2:54,  A - 423, E - Biles 2 (5), Perreira (3), Nilsen (2).
OSU Hits - Stark 2, Hudson, Barden 3, Davis 2, Gerber, Gott, Coleman, Hedges.
WSU Hits - Hecker 2, Stevenson, Hattenburg 5, Bailie 2, Bode 2, Curran 2
Perreira, Nilsen, Smith 2.
2B - Hudson (7), Davis (4), Gott (2), Hedges (12), Hecker (7), Stevenson (11)
Hattenburg (17), Smith (7).