PROBABLE STARTERS
Freddie Erlandson | RS-SO | RHP | 3-2, 3.46 ERA, 29 K, 39.0 IP vs. Isaac Mullins | RS-SO | LHP | 0-4, 5.46 ERA, 25 K, 28.0 IP
Steven Wilson | RS-SR | RHP | 3-1, 3.55 ERA, 46 K, 33.0 IP vs. Scotty Sunitsch | SR | LHP | 3-1, 2.83 ERA, 37 K, 47.2 IP
TBA vs. Hayden Rosenkrantz | FR | RHP | 0-1, 4.57 ERA, 16 K, 21.2 IP

COUGARS HOST SANTA CLARA FOR WEEKEND SERIES

Washington State welcomes Santa Clara to Bailey-Brayton Field for a three-game nonconference series beginning Friday at 5 p.m. The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and wraps up Sunday at 1 p.m.
 

FOLLOW ALONG

Follow all the season's action on the Washington State baseball official twitter page @CougBaseball, instagram page @Coug_Baseball and wsucougars.com. Links to live stats and radio streams will be available at the baseball schedule page on wsucougars.com. Every home game will be webstreamed through wsucougars.com. 
 

ON DECK

The Cougars will head to the west side of the state next week for a Wednesday matchup at Seattle U before facing Washington for a three-game weekend series with all three teams televised on the Pac-12 Network.
 

TUESDAY RECAP AT GONZAGA

The Cougars dropped a 7-4 nonconference meeting at Gonzaga Tuesday evening. WSU received two-hit games from JJ Hancock, Dillon Plew and James Rudkin along with a two-run home run from Justin Harrer. Gonzaga collected 12 hits and scored runs in the first four innings including a three-run second inning.
 

LAST WEEKEND

Washington State dropped two of three to California in Pullman, claiming the series-finale with a 10th-inning walkoff RBI-single from JJ Hancock. Cal used a six-run second inning to take Friday's opener 13-6 and a four-run fourth inning to take game one of Saturday's doubleheader. In the game two finale, WSU tied the game with two runs in the seventh inning before Andres Alvarez pulled a double down the left field line and Hancock followed with a single to right centerfield to score Alvarez for the game-winner. Cougar starter Scotty Sunitsch allowed just one earned run and struck out seven in six innings of work in game two.
 

ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State enters the weekend with a 10-20 mark and 5-10 in Pac-12 play after dropping two of three to California in Pullman last weekend and falling 7-4 at Gonzaga Tuesday. Offensively the Cougars are led by outfielder Blake Clanton's .310 batting average while JJ Hancock adds a .307 batting average to go along with six doubles. Justin Harrer paces the club with eight homers and 18 RBI. Head coach Marty Lees is in his third season at Washington State.
 

SCU-WSU SERIES HISTORY

Washington State leads the all-time series with Santa Clara 11-4 and will be meet for the first time since 2008. The Broncos claimed the last meeting, 7-5 in Santa Clara and WSU claimed the previous meeting 5-3 in a 2004 matchup played in Sacramento. This will be the first meeting between the two teams in Pullman.
 

COUGARS AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS DURING PAC-12 PLAY

Washington State enters the weekend among the league leaders during Pac-12 Conference play. Through 15 Pac-12 games, the Cougar offense is tied for first in triples (4), fourth in hits (130), tied for fourth in home runs and the pitching staff owns the third-most strikeouts (111). Defensively during conference play, WSU is second  in double plays turned (15) and tied for second with Utah in fielding percentage (.982, 10 errors). Individually in conference play, JJ Hancock is seventh inning batting average (.365) and on-base percentage (.460), and tied for fourth in hits (19) while Justin Harrer is second in home runs (6). On the mound, Scotty Sunitsch is third in league play in ERA (2.56), fourth in batting average against (.202) and innings (31.2), and tied for sixth in strikeouts (27).
 

BY THE NUMBERS IN 2018

18 - Ryan Walker retired 18 consecutive batters over a span of three appearances, at UCLA, at Arizona, ASU

17 - WSU has played 17 games that were decided by two runs or less (9-8)

17 - JJ Hancock enters the weekend series having reached base in 17 straight games

15 - Scotty Sunitsch is tied for third in the country with 15 hit batters in 2018

14 - WSU has played 14 one-run games in 2018 and posted an 9-5 record

9 - WSU has seen 9 pitchers make their WSU debuts in 2018 including 6 true freshmen

9 - In WSU's 10 wins, 9 have all been by one run

8 - Justin Harrer's 8 home runs are the most by a Cougar since Taylor Ard hit 12 in 2012

7 - WSU owns 7 comeback wins in 2018 including four of walkoff variety

7 - WSU owns 7 last at-bat wins in 2018 including against Gonzaga April 3

5 - Wyatt Segle had 5 hits against UC Riverside in Tempe (2/18), WSU's 5-hit game since Adam Nelubowich in 2013

2 - Scotty Sunitsch has been a part of the last two WSU hitters, threw the 9th of last years combined no-hitter against Stephen F. Austin and threw a solo nine-inning no-hitter at Oregon (4/8)

1 - WSU handed Arizona its first home loss of the 2018 season March 24, UA had won its first 10 home games
 

RECORD BOOK WATCH (PAGE 6)

Senior lefthander Scotty Sunitsch put his name in a couple WSU career Top-10 lists last season while senior righty Ryan Walker has also worked his way on to the record book. Sunitsch enters the weekend with 79 career appearances, third-most in WSU history while Walker moved into the Top-10 a couple weeks ago and now owns 76 appearances, 5th-most in school history. Sunitsch also owns nine career saves, tied for ninth in WSU history while Walker's moved into a tie with Sunitsch after notching his ninth career save in the win over Gonzaga April 3. Walker has notched three wins in relief this season after recording another in the walkoff win over California last Saturday, clinching No. 12 of his career, fourth-most in WSU history. 
 

SUNITSCH THROWS NO-HITTER, NAMED NATIONAL PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Senior lefthander Scotty Sunitsch threw a no-hitter at Oregon April 8, the 25th no-hitter in WSU history and first solo nine-inning no-hitter since Eric Wilkins did so at Oregon State in 1976. Sunitsch was named the National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Perfect Game and College Sports Madness and Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week. Sunitsch no-hit the Ducks in Washington State's 7-0 road win in Sunday's series-finale. The Federal Way, Wash. native struck out a career high nine, walked two, hit two batters and needed just 95 pitches. In the ninth inning, Sunitsch received a big play from a veteran outfielder who had just entered the game. Oregon's first batter of the inning lined a ball into shallow left field that senior Derek Chapman charged and made a sliding catch for the first out. Chapman had entered the game in the top of the ninth for Justin Harrer who left the game during his ninth-inning at-bat after an awkward swing. Sunitsch struck out the next two hitters before he was mobbed by his teammates.
 

NO-HITTER NOTES

Notes from Scotty Sunitsch' no-hitter at Oregon (4/8)

- 25th no-hitter in WSU history

- 18th no-hitter in the country this season

- WSU's 1st solo 9-inning no-hitter since Eric Wilkins at Oregon State in 1976

- Sunitch threw the 9th inning of WSU's combined no-hitter last season against Stephen F. Austin

- There have been 3 other Cougar solo no-hitters since 1976 but all three were seven innings

- Sunitsch recorded WSU's first shutout since 2015, Joe Pistorese against California 

- Sunitsch recorded WSU's first complete game since 2015, Joe Pistorese against Washington
 

COUGS TURN FIRST TRIPLE PLAY SINCE 1999

In WSU's 2-1 win over Saint Mary's March 10, the Cougars turned their first triple play since 1999. Saint Mary's had runners on first and second with nobody out. SMC popped up a bunt attempt that catcher Cal Waterman dove for and caught. He jumped to his feet and fired to James Rudkin at first base to double-off the runner for the second out and Rudkin then fired to Andres Alvarez at second base to get the runner at second base for the final out. It was WSU's first triple play since doing to so at Arizona State (4/11/99).
 

COMEBACK KIDS AT IT AGAIN IN 2018 (Page 5)

After posting 12 comeback wins in 2017, the Cougars have tallied seven comeback wins in 2018 including four of the walkoff variey (once against Saint Mary's, twice against Arizona State and once against California). 

- WSU trailed UC Riverside 6-1 in the Husker Classic finale before tallying two runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth behind a pair of two-out two-run singles from JJ Hancock and Cal Waterman with Waterman's proving to be the game-winner.

- WSU erased Saint Mary's 6-3 lead with Dillon Plew's three-run double in the seventh inning before WSU scored the winning run in the 11th inning after a Saint Mary's throwing error. 

- WSU added another two days later, trailing 1-0 in the first inning before a pair of solo homers games clinched a 2-1 win against the Gaels. 

- WSU erased a 4-0 second-inning deficit to Arizona State with a six-run second inning and later won in the 10th on Justin Harrer's solo homer.

- The very next night, WSU erased a 1-0 first-inning deficit with two runs in the first later walked off on ASU again, this time on Danny Sinatro's 11th-inning RBI-single. 

- Against Gonzaga April 3, WSU tied the game with a Collin Montez RBI-sacrifice fly in the seventh inning and Robert Teel hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning that proved to be the game winner in a 4-3 victory.

- In game two against California Saturday, WSU tied the game with two runs in the seventh inning before Andres Alvarez pulled a doubled down the left field line with two outs in the 10th and JJ Hancock followed with a single to right centerfield to score Alvarez for a 4-3 win.

COUGARS LOOKING FOR MORE IN 2018

WSU returned eight starters from its 2017 lineup and two pitchers from its final weekend rotation. Last season, the Cougars upped their win total from a season ago and posted four straight Pac-12 Conference series wins in a 24-29 campaign including a 10-20 mark in league play. In year two under head coach Marty Lees, the Cougars recorded its highest batting average, scored the most runs and hit the most home runs since 2013 while posting the fourth-most doubles (105) in the Pac-12, the most since 2012. Washington State won four straight conference series for the first time since 1995, claiming series against No. 30 Washington, at Utah, Oregon and No. 28 UCLA. The Cougars played well at Bailey-Brayton Field in 2017, posting a 20-10 mark for the best home record since the 2010 team went 20-5.
 

COUGARS SELECT FIVE CAPTAINS FOR 2018

Washington State debut team captains for the first time under head coach Marty Lees in 2018."It was time for a leadership council to lead this team," said Lees, who enters his third-year leading the Cougs. After a team vote, the five leaders chosen were; senior left-handed pitcher Cody Anderson, senior outfielder Derek Chapman, senior left-handed pitcher Scotty Sunitsch, junior infielder Andres Alvarez, and senior outfielder Blake Clanton. 
 

COUGAR BASEBALL ON WASHINGTON STATE IMG RADIO

This season, 36 games will be broadcast on the Washington State IMG Network and every radio broadcast will be available through the WSU Gameday App via TuneIn and on KQQQ (1150 AM) in Pullman. There will also be select games broadcast on KXLY (920 AM) in Spokane and games will be available on KONA (610 AM) in Tri-Cities. Included in the 36 broadcasts are all 30 Pac-12 Conference contests and all three meetings against Gonzaga University. Matt Chazanow enters his third season calling Cougar Baseball and will be joined in the booth by former Cougar All-American and Major Leaguer Mike Kinkade who will serve as an analyst for select home games in 2017. Kinkade played at Washington State from 1992-95, earned All-America honors as a junior and finished his WSU career the all-time leader in hits, runs scored and doubles and went on to play six seasons in the big leagues with the Mets, Orioles and Dodgers. He was inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame in 2017.
 

BAILEY-BRAYTON FIELD GETS NEW ASTROTURF FOR 2018

Thsi past summer, Bailey-Brayton Field received AstroTurf's state-of-the-art Diamond Series playing surface, replacing the FieldTurf that was installed in 2004. The infield FieldTurf was replaced in 2013. "We are very excited that WSU Athletics made the decision to add new turf for the first phase of the renovations for our baseball program," WSU Head Coach Marty Lees said. "Steve Webb of Coast to Coast Turf oversaw the installation who is a former Coug who played on this field so we know we are in great hands! We are looking forward to playing on one of the country's premiere playing surfaces at Bailey-Brayton Field." For this synthetic turf system, the infield "grass" portion of the field is comprised of a combination of advanced fibers that mimic the look, feel, and playability of natural grass. Base paths, warning tracks, and batter's box all feature a proprietary fiber blend of shorter pile height that accurately emulates clay. All of the elements of the playing surface have been engineered for optimal ball bounce, ball roll, underfoot feel, and durability for the specific part of the baseball diamond in which they are installed.  A special feature called the RootZone acts like a net to encapsulate the sand and rubber and to reduce its splash for more natural hops. AstroTurf is used at approximately 80 percent of all Division I synthetic baseball fields including The Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Michigan and Oklahoma.