PULLMAN, Wash. – Senior
Blake Clanton hit a school-record four doubles to lead Washington State past Santa Clara in the series-opener 12-10 in front of a season-high 1,464 fans at Bailey-Brayton Field Friday evening.
Clanton doubled in each of his first four at-bats, breaking the previous Cougar record of three that was accomplished 15 times and most recently in 2007. Clanton's mark also tied the Pac-12 Conference record and he became just the fifth player to double at least four times in a game among all Division I players in 2018. The senior outfielder went 4-for-5 with a career-high four RBI and three runs scored.
Washington State (11-20) collected 15 hits, receiving multiple-hit games from
Collin Montez,
Robert Teel,
James Rudkin and
Dillon Plew along with another impressive relief outing from
Ryan Walker who closed the door with 2.1 scoreless innings to notch his fourth save of the season.
A.J. Block earned his first win of the season after 1.2 scoreless innings for relief, striking out three along the way. Santa Clara dropped to 16-19 overall.
WSU used three hits to score three times in the first inning but Santa Clara answered with a three-run homer in the second. Both teams exploded for five runs in the third inning as SCU took advantage of three Cougar errors in the inning. WSU came right back in their half of the frame with five hits and one Bronco error with the big hit coming
Andres Alvarez who doubled to right field that scored two runs with two outs in the inning.
The Cougars took a 9-8 lead in the fourth inning a
Robert Teel sacrifice fly and Santa Clara re-took the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning but WSU came right back in the bottom of the frame.
JJ Hancock singled in a run and one batter later, Clanton doubled in a pair of runs for a 12-10 lead.
WSU reliever
A.J. Block worked a scoreless sixth inning and got the first two outs of the seventh before loading the bases. The Cougars called upon Walker who induced an inning-ending groundout to second on his first pitch and preserved the two-run lead. In the eighth, Walker stranded a pair of Broncos with a strikeout before ending the game with a 6-4-3 double play.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Andres Alvarez walked in the 1
st inning, extending his on-base streak to 9 games
Alvarez doubled in the 3
rd inning, extending his hitting streak to 8 games
Blake Clanton doubled in the 1
st inning, extending his hitting streak to 6 games
JJ Hancock was hit by a pitch in the 3
rd inning, extending his on-base streak to 18 games
Clanton recorded his 4
th double of the game in the 5
th inning, setting a WSU record and tied a Pac-12 record
Ryan Walker recorded his 10
th career save, tied for eighth-most in WSU history
NEXT UP
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m.
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