Feb. 20, 2004

Final Stats

Washington State's baseball team secured its third win of the season with senior Justin Hart leading the Cougars to a 5-3 victory over Santa Clara Friday in the River City Tournament at Hornet Field.

Hart had one hit with two walks, two runs scored and the winning RBI for the Cougs. In the sixth Hart singled to left field to bring home Justin McClure for the game-deciding run. McClure led off the inning with a single to center and advanced to second with a stolen base.

"Our offense just kept battling," WSU Head Coach Tim Mooney said. "We didn't give any at-bats away. We had timely hitting and Justin Hart had one of those timely hits."

Aaron MacKenzie (2-0), last week's Pacific-10 Conference Pitcher of the week pitched seven innings for WSU (3-2), allowed three earned runs, struck out seven and walked two. Freshman Wayne Daman, Jr., picked up the save with two scoreless innings of one hit ball. Chad Fillinger (2-1) took the loss for the Broncos (4-4), giving up four runs, three earned, in 5.1 innings.

"I was very impressed with young Wayne Daman, Jr.," Mooney added. "In just his second outing, he pitched well for the save. MacKenzie also had another good start of us."

In the bottom of the first, Hart scored the first run of the game for the Cougs, following a fielding error. Hart was walked for WSU's first base runner of the game and advanced to third on a single by Grant Richardson.

In the fourth, Richardson brought home Hart and Kaeo Rubin on a single up the middle to tie the game at 3-3.

Freshman Jeff Miller hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Zach Kosturos for the final run of the game in the seventh. Kosturos hit a double to left and advanced to third on a balk before scoring.

Santa Clara scored two runs in the top of the second, using a single and a pair of doubles to take an early 2-1 lead. In the fourth, Jason Matteucci was hit by a pitch and was later advanced to second by a single from former Cougar Dustin Realini. During the next at bat, both Matteucci and Realini advanced bases following a wild pitch by MacKenzie. Matteucci then scored the Broncos final run of the game on of a ground out by Michael Thompson.

Also getting hits for WSU were Jay Miller and Jason Freeman. Rubin, Hart and McClure all had stolen bases for the Cougs.

Saturday, the Cougars will face off against Saint Mary's in another 10:00 a.m. game at Hornet Field. Saint Mary's dropped an 8-2 decision to host Sacramento State Friday afternoon. Aaron Trolia (0-1) is expected to make his second start of the season for the Cougs against Saint Mary's. In other tournament action Saturday Sac State will play San Francisco and Santa Clara plays Cal Poly.

Santa Clara 	020 010 000 - 3 6 3
WSU	100 201 10X - 5 9 1
Aaron MacKenzie, Wayne Daman, Jr. (8) and Brandon Reddinger.
Chad Fillinger, Anthony Rea (6) and David Mandley.
W - MacKenzie (2-0). L - Fillinger (2-1). Save - Daman (1). HR - None.
T - 2:53 A - 119.
Santa Clara Hits - Faulkner, Realini 2, M. Thompson, Epidendio, Mandley.
WSU Hits - Rubin 2, Hart, Ja. Miller, Richardson 2, Kosturos, Jas. Freeman, McClure.
E - Jas. Freeman, M. Thompson 3. 2B - Kosturos, M. Thompson, Mandley. 3B - None.