EUGENE, Ore. – Washington State dropped the rubber game 11-7 of its weekend series at the University of Oregon Sunday afternoon. The Cougars took Friday's opener 4-0 before the Ducks won Saturday's contest 8-0 and used a six-run eighth inning to claim Sunday's finale.
Washington State (14-25, 7-14 Pac-12) held a 7-5 lead heading into the eighth inning before Oregon used five hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch to score six in the inning and post the come-from-behind win.
Jack Strunc tallied two hits and Dugan Shirer drove in two runs for the Cougars. Oregon (20-17, 9-9 Pac-12) tallied 13 hits and reliever Steven Nogosek pitched 2.1 scoreless innings to close out the game.
Cougar starting pitcher Trenton Dupre cruised through the first three hitters in the first inning but a dropped third strike allowed the Oregon hitter to reach and he then advanced to second on the same play. The next batter singled home a run for a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars received a clutch two-out hit from Shirer to take a 2-1 lead in the third inning. Strunc led off the inning with a single back up the middle and Shane Matheny reached on a fielding error by the Ducks. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch before Shirer poked a ball the opposite way just over the third baseman down the left field line four a two-run double.
Washington State added two more in the fourth inning as Weston Hatten got things going with a sharply hit ball back up the middle for a single and Cameron Frost followed with a ground-rule double to left field. Stefan Van Horn brought home Hatten with an RBI-groundout and Frost scampered home on a wild pitch for a 4-1 Cougar lead.
Oregon caught a break in in the fourth as a two-out groundball towards Patrick McGrath at first hit the first base bag and hopped into right field that allowed a run to score. The Ducks cut the lead to 4-3 after squeezing home a run in the fifth inning.
In the sixth, Washington State added two more runs as Ty Johnson walked and McGrath singled through the left side. Following a Hatten sacrifice bunt and a strikeout, Johnson came home on a wild pitch and McGrath scored after a fielding error by the Ducks that pushed the lead to 6-3.
Oregon used a two-out two-run single to make it a 6-5 game through six innings but the Cougars added another run in the seventh on a bases-load walk that saw Trek Stemp walk home for a 7-5 WSU lead.
In the eighth, the Ducks used a walk, a ground-rule double to right field and a two-run single back up the middle to tie things up at 7-7. The next batter reached with a bunt single down the third base line and a walk loaded the bases. Oregon took the lead with a pair of two-out two-run singles through the right side to take an 11-7 lead.
Left-handed reliever Scotty Sunitsch worked four solid innings before Oregon rallied in the eighth, four of which that were charged to the sophomore. Dupre surrendered one earned run on four hits in 3.2 innings.
GAME NOTES…Stemp recorded his team-leading 11th stolen base of the season…WSU returns home to host the University of Utah beginning Saturday at 7 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.
