SAN MARCOS, Texas – Washington State baseball dropped its season-opener 6-2 at Texas State University Friday evening. The series continues Saturday at 1 p.m. (PT).

Senior Partrick McGrath led the Cougars with a pair of hits including an RBI-double.

Texas State used a first-inning homer to take a 1-0 lead but the Cougars came back with two in the third. Freshman Justin Harrer and Dugan Shirer each picked up hits in their first Washington State at-bats as Harrer singled to center and Shirer punched a ball the opposite way to left-centerfield to put runners on the corners. Redshirt-junior Trek Stemp scored Harrer with a sacrifice fly to center and senior Patrick McGrath later doubled home Shirer with a two-out hit to right center.

The Bobcats evened things up at two in their half of the third as a ball took a high hop over Harrer at shortstop and went into left-centerfield for an RBI-double. In the fourth, Texas State picked up two runs and added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to build a 6-2 advantage.

Texas State starter Lucas Humpal settled in and kept the Cougars off balance for the remainder of the night. Humpal limited WSU to two runs on seven hits and struck out six in seven innings.

Washington State junior lefthander Trenton Dupre fired two scoreless innings of relief in his first WSU appearance and  freshman reliever Davis Baillie pitched a perfect eighth inning, recording a pair of strikeouts in his collegiate debut. Cougar starting pitcher junior Ian Hamilton surrendered five runs and struck out three in 4.2 innings in his first career start.