GONZAGA at WASHINGTON STATE
Pullman, Wash. | Bailey-Brayton Field (3,500) | April 3, 2018
Tuesday, 5:05 p.m. | Pac-12 Network 

COUGARS HOST GONZAGA FOR TUESDAY MATCHUP

Washington State (7-15) hosts Gonzaga University (13-12) for a nonconference matchup Tuesday at Bailey-Brayton Field. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network. This is the first of three meetings with the Bulldogs.
 

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 Eugene this weekend for a three-game series at Oregon.
 

LAST TIME OUT

Washington State took out of three from visiting Arizona State last weekend, clinching its first series win over the Sun Devils since 2013 and first series win over ASU in Pullman since 2010. The Cougars used a Justin Harrer 10th-inning walkoff homer to win Thursday and Danny Sinatro's walkoff RBI-single to claim Friday's game. ASU starter Eli Lingos posted a six-hit shutout Saturday to avoid the sweep.
 

ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State enters the week with a 7-15 mark after taking a Pac-12 series from Arizona State 2-1 last weekend. Offensively the Cougars are led by outfielder Blake Clanton's .322 batting average while JJ Hancock adds a .303 batting average to go along with five doubles. Justin Harrer paces the club with four homers and 12 RBI. Head coach Marty Lees is in his third season at Washington State.
 

GONZAGA-WSU SERIES HISTORY

Washington State leads the all-time series 197-103-1 over Gonzaga but the Bulldogs have taken the last five meetings including both matchups last season. The Cougars last win in the series came in 2015, a 4-2 win in Pullman. WSU owns an 83-31 mark in the series played in Pullman.
 

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 week with 77 career appearances, good for fourth in WSU history while Walker moved into the Top-10 a couple weeks ago and nows owns 72, 9th in school history. Sunitsch also owns nine career saves, tied for ninth in WSU history while Walker's eight career saves sit just one save outside the WSU Top-10. Walker, who recorded three wins in relief last season to push his career relief wins total to nine, added another relief win against UC Riverside opening weekend and picked up another with four shuout innings last Thursday against Arizona State, clinching No. 11 of his career, fourth-most in WSU history. 
 

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 five comback wins including a pair of walkoff wins last weekend against Arizona State. The Cougars 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 added another win in its final at-bat at Grand Canyon, breaking a 4-4 tied with a run in the ninth inning for a 5-4 road win. The Cougars added another one against Saint Mary's (3/8), erasing 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. The Cougars added another two days later, trailing 1-0 in the first inning before a pair of solo homers games clinched a 2-1 win. Last weekend against Arizona State, the Cougars erased a 4-0 second-inning deficit with a six-run second inning and later won in the 10th on Justin Harrer's solo homer. The very next night, the Cougars 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.
 

NOTES FROM SERIES AGAINST ARIZONA STATE

Washington State used a pair of walkoffs to take the first two games of the series against Arizona State in Pullman last weekend. Justin Harrer's solo homer to lead off the 10th inning gave WSU an 8-7 win and Danny Sinatro's RBI-single in the 11th inning gave the Cougars a 4-3 win Friday. ASU starter Eli Lingos fired a six-hit shutout to avoid the sweep Saturday. Washington clinched its first series over Arizona State since 2013 and first series win over the Sun Devils in Pullman since 2010. JJ Hancock led the Cougars hitting .400 with three runs scored including Friday's game-winning run in the 11th. Hancock also threw out a runner at the plate from right field in the ninth inning for Friday's win.
 

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.