April 26, 2008
Box Score
PULLMAN, Wash. - For the second time in five days, Washington State rallied in its last at bat to earn a victory as the Cougars defeated San Jose State 7-5 in nonconference baseball at Bailey-Brayton Field, Saturday.
Travis Coulter capped a four-run bottom of the eighth for Washington State (22-18) with a two-run single that broke a 5-5 tie and made a winner out of reliever Andrew Davis (4-2).
"We've been on the other side of these types of games for the past few weeks, so to have a couple of them go our way this week has been huge," Cougar Head Coach Donnie Marbut said.
The Cougars broke a 46-game losing streak when trailing after eight innings when they scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Gonzaga 9-8, Tuesday. Coulter also registered the game-winning hit in that victory.
Saturday, Washington State snapped a 32-game losing streak when trailing after seven innings. Down 5-2 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Cougars caught a break when Jim Murphy's fly ball to centerfield was misjudged for a one-out double. Jared Prince followed with a single to put runners at the corners, and Alex Burg knocked in a run with a single to send Prince to second.
Greg Lagreid, who has hit safely in 16 of his last 19 games to raise his average 65 points, then laced a two-run double into the left-centerfield gap off Jack Adams (3-1) tying the game 5-5. After San Jose State (23-18) reliever Trevor Gibson retired Scott Suttmeier, he intentionally walked pinch hitter Michael Weber and unintentionally walked Shea Vucinich to load the bases prior to Coulter's heroics.
Ross Humes came on in the ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season and received a little help from Suttmeier. With one out, pinch hitter Karsten Klauer drilled a ball into the left field corner, but was gunned down by Suttmeier trying to stretch the hit into a double.
The Spartans built a 4-0 lead with three runs in the fourth and one in the sixth. It could have been more in the fourth, but Paul Gran made a diving stop to his left on a ground ball and threw out Jason Martin, who had tripled, out at the plate.
The Cougars tallied twice in the sixth on a RBI-single by Suttmeier and a run-scoring ground out by Vucinich to draw within 4-2 before San Jose State tacked on a run in the seventh.
WSU starter Jayson Miller pitched seven and one-third innings and struck out six to mark the 10th-straight game he has logged at least six innings.
The teams conclude their three-game series at 11 a.m., Sunday.
Washington State 7, San Jose State 5
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San Jose State...... 000 301 010 - 5 13 1 (23-18)
Washington State.... 000 000 25X - 7 10 0 (22-18)
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Pitchers: San Jose State - Berner; Adams(7); Gibson(8). Washington State - Miller, Jayson;
Davis, Andrew(8); Humes, Ross(9).
Win-Davis, Andrew(4-2) Save-Humes, Ross(5) Loss-Adams(3-1) T-2:44 A-442
HR SJSU - Martin (2).
