Feb. 20, 2010

Box Score

PULLMAN, Wash. - Juniors Matt Argyropoulos and Garry Kuykendall each collected three hits and Washington State opened its 2010 baseball season with an 11-6 win over Seattle at Bailey-Brayton Field, Saturday.

Argyropoulos doubled, homered and drove in three runs. Kuykendall scored three times and knocked in two. Redshirt-junior Chad Arnold (1-0) picked up the win with four-plus innings of work in a controlled start.

"We scored in five different innings and that is good sign for our offense," WSU Head Coach Donnie Marbut said. "We didn't pitch as well as we would have liked, but it is hard to take much out of the first game of the season and it was a win."

After falling behind 1-0, the Cougars (1-0) scored five times in the bottom of the second, all with two outs. Redshirt-junior Cody Bartlett was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the first run. Kuykendall singled in two and a third run came home via a throwing error on the play. Kuykendall scored on a passed ball to put WSU on top 5-1.

Argyropoulos homered to open the third and capped a two-run fourth with a run-scoring double making the score 8-1. Seattle (0-1) tallied three times in the fifth, but Argyropoulos answered with a sacrifice fly in the sixth to give the Cougars a 9-4 lead.

After the Redhawks scored in the seventh on a Riley Tompkins home run, senior Michael Weber delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double in the bottom of the frame to increase the WSU lead to 11-5. Junior Paris Shewey recorded the final seven outs and gave up a lone run in the eighth for the Cougars.

The teams conclude their two-game series beginning at noon, Sunday.

WSU NOTES
The attendance of 1,136 was the largest in the Donnie Marbut era at Bailey-Brayton Field for a nonconference game...Cougars were hit by a pitch three times after posting the fifth-highest season total in school history last year with 89...freshmen Brett Jacobs, Brady Steiger and J.K. Dykes all made their collegiate debut...the 11 runs scored by WSU was the most in a season opener since 21 at New Mexico State in 1999.