PORTLAND (March 26, 2024) – Washington State dropped a 3-2 contest to Portland at Joe Etzel Field Tuesday evening.
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The Cougars (15-9), who entered the game winners of five straight, left nine runners on base and saw Portland (14-8) break a 2-2 tie with the go-ahead run on sacrifice fly in the seventh inning. WSU received a career-high four hits from catcher
Will Cresswell but the Cougars left multiple runners on base to end the second, sixth and eighth innings.
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WSU starter
Kevin Haynes worked three innings, allowed one earned run and struck out three
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KEY MOMENTS OF THE GAME
In the first inning, Portland took a 1-0 lead after a two-out fielding error by WSU but the Cougars answered in the second inning.
Griffen Sotomayor walked, Cresswell followed with a single to left and
Cole Cramer punched an RBI-single the other way through the right side to score Sotomayor and
Crew Parke gave WSU the lead with a bases-loaded walk.
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Portland evened things up with a pair of doubles in the third inning and threatened again in the fourth inning, putting two runners on with two outs but reliever
Rylan Haider entered the game and ended the inning with a flyout to centerfield.
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The Cougars put two runners on in the sixth inning but the Pilots escaped the inning with a strikeout and groundout.
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In the seventh, Portland doubled to left field, moved to third base on a wild pitch and took the lead with a sacrifice fly to left field. WSU nearly answered in the eighth inning as Kramer worked a leadoff walk and Cresswell bounced his fourth single of the night back up the middle with one out but Portland held the lead with a fielder's choice that forced out the lead runner at third before a flyout to centerfield ended the inning.
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INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Kyle Russell walked in the 1
st inning to extend his on-base streak to 8 games
Joey Kramer walked in the 8
th inning to extend his on-base streak to 17 games but his 12-game hitting streak was snapped
Max Hartman had his 12-game on-base streak snapped
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NEXT UP
WSU heads to Seattle for The Boeing Apple Cup series beginning Thursday at 7:05 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.
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