Cougars Wrap Up Season-Opening Road Stretch Tuesday at Utah

Tuesday, March 17

Salt Lake City, UT

3 p.m.

Washington State University

Utah

March 16, 2026 | Baseball

This Week in Cougar Baseball Podcast Donate to WSU NIL Washington State Game Notes LIVE STATS WATCH | ESPN+

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

WASHINGTON STATE (7-11, 1-2 Mountain West) at UTAH (11-6, 2-1 Big 12)
America First Ballpark | Salt Lake City
Tuesday, 3 p.m. (PT) | March 17, 2026
WATCH | ESPN+

COUGARS WRAP UP SEASON-OPENING ROAD STRETCH TUESDAY AT UTAH
Washington State closes out its season-opening 19-game road stretch with a Tuesday matchup at Utah. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. (PT) at Utah's new home field, America First Ballpark.

FOLLOW ALONG
Tuesday's game will have live stats and webstreamed on ESPN+

THIS WEEK IN COUGAR BASEBALL PODCAST
Every Wednesday a new episode of This Week in Cougar Baseball Podcast presented by Coors Light will be released with head coach Nathan Choate, a member of the program, and host Trevor Williams.

ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State enters week with a 7-11 record after posting wins at Alabama, two at Cal Poly, two at Long Beach State, one at Texas State and opened Mountain West play dropping two of three at San Diego State last weekend. The Cougars entered last weekend with the No. 45 RPI by NCAA.com and No. 48 strength of schedule according to Warren Nolan. WSU returned 19 letterwinners from last year's club including all three weekend rotation starters and six to a lineup that improved its batting average by 20 points from the previous season. Preseason All-Mountain West Conference outfielder Max Hartman returned for his senior season after hitting .363 last season. Head coach Nathan Choate is in his third season at WSU.

ABOUT UTAH
Utah enters the week with an 11-6 overall recorded after taking two of three from Arizona in their Big 12 Conference opening series last weekend. The Cougars lead the all-time series 28-23 against the Utes while Utah won the last two meetings, taking two of three in Pullman as members of the Pac-12 Conference in 2024.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
1976 - WSU's 1976 College World Series team will be inducted into the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame this fall, WSU will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1976 CWS team all season
81% - WSU returned 81% of its innings from last season, the 10th-most nationally (D1Baseball)
13 - 13 Cougar Pitchers return with Division I innings, WSU entered last year with just 2
7 - WSU's 7 road wins in 2026 have already surpassed the 2025 road win total of 3
5 - WSU's roster features 5 Canadians; C Alexandre Giguère, OF Max Hartman, C Cam Macleod,
RHP Scott Rienguette, SS Gavin Roy
4 - WSU has 4 team captains, LHP Nick Lewis, RHP Luke Meyers, SS Gavin Roy, 1B Ryan Skjonsby
3 - 3 former Cougs are in the big leagues;
Ian Hamilton (RHP, NYY), Kyle Manzardo (1B, CLE), Ryan Walker (RHP, SFG)
2 - WSU has won 2 of 3 season openers under Nathan Choate
(12-6 at Utah Tech, 2024; 8-4 at Alabama, 2026)
2 - Alexandre Giguère's 2-HR game at Texas State (3/6) was 1st 2-HR game by a Cougar freshman since Derek Jones against Gonzaga (3/3/09), Jones (2009-12) is WSU's all-time home run leader (41)

GIGUERE NAMED MOUNTAIN WEST FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK MARCH 9
Cougar catcher Alexandre Giguère was named the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Week March 9. In three games at Texas State, Giguère hit three home runs, drove in five runs, scored five runs with a .364 batting average and slugged 1.182. In Thursday's opener, Giguère came off the bench and hit first career homer, walked and scored twice. The Levis, Quèbec City, Canada native started game one of the Friday doubleheader and hit a pair of home runs and finished with four RBI. Giguère started the Sunday finale where he singled and scored a run and later threw out a runner attempting to steal second. It was WSU's first player of the week award of the season and the first since lefthanded starter Nick Lewis was named the conference pitcher and freshman of the week May 5.

CRESSWELL NAMED TO GREAT BRITAIN WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC ROSTER
Former Washington State catcher Will Cresswell was named to Great Britain's 2026 World Baseball Classic roster. Cresswell was drafted in the 18th round by the Toronto Blue Jays last summer, the first Cougar catcher drafted since P.J. Jones in 2015. Cresswell appeared late on defense in Great Britain's loss to USA in Houston March 7..

HARTMAN, SKJONSBY, LEAD COUGARS PAST ALABAMA ON OPENING DAY
Washington State opened the 2026 season with an impressive 8-4 victory over Alabama. Max Hartman had three hits, homered, scored three times and stole base and Ryan Skjonsby homered as the Cougars collected 10 hits while five pitchers combined to strike out 11 Crimson Tide hitters. Freshman leadoff hitter Trevor Smith had a pair of hits, scored twice and stole a base, Dustin Robinson had two hits including a two-run single in the first inning and Matt Priest had a pair of RBI including an RBI-double. Cougar starting pitcher Luke Meyers struck out three and allowed one earned run while working into the fourth inning. Reliever Rylan Haider came up big with four strikeouts over his two innings of work. Scott Rienguette closed out the final two innings.

IN THE CLASSROOM, IN THE COMMUNITY
- WSU set a program record with a 3.45 team GPA in the 2025 fall semester
- 21 Cougs were named to the Academic All-Mountain West Team (3.0 cume GPA)
- WSU earned ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award the last two seasons (3.29, 3.35)
- WSU partners with WSU ROAR to host a Lentil Cookoff each fall. WSU ROAR is a two-year postsecondary education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

WILL CRESSWELL DRAFTED BY TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Catcher Will Cresswell was selected in the 18th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft. Cresswell, taken as the 18th round and No. 532 overall pick, is the first Cougar catcher drafted since P.J. Jones in 2015 and the first Cougar drafted by Toronto since shortstop Cody Bartlett in 2011. This past season, Cresswell became the first Cougar catcher to earn all-league honors since 2021 after earning a spot on the All-Mountain West Conference Second Team. The senior from Auburn, Wash. hit .329 with 13 doubles and five home run doubles along with a team-high 43 RBI and 10 multiple-RBI games while his 19 runners thrown out caught stealing led the league.

PAC-12 CONFERENCE BASEBALL SET FOR NEW LOOK IN 2027
The Pac-12 Conference and Dallas Baptist University (DBU) jointly announced that the Patriots will join as an affiliate member in the sport of baseball beginning with the 2026-27 season, coinciding with the new Pac-12's launch year. DBU will join Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State and Washington State as the seven members of Pac-12 Baseball.

FAN EXPERIENCE AT BAILEY-BRAYTON FIELD
WSU Athletics and Aramark Sports announced additions to the Bailey-Brayton Field fan experience in 2025.

- Enhanced views of the ballpark with the new backstop netting
- RV Weekends (May 9-11 vs. UNLV)
- Fans 21 and over will have the opportunity to take all food and beverage menu items, including beer and wine, to their seats for the 2025 baseball season
- Upgraded concession items including a walking taco cart (open weather dependent), footlong hotdogs, and a specialty brunch burger during Sunday games which includes bacon, egg, and cheese.
- Section 11 remains an alcohol-free section
- No re-entry to the ballpark

Beer and wine sales will continue to be located down the first base line in front of the Miller Indoor Training Facility (Beverages must be taken back to their seats).

JOHN OLERUD NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE CENTURY
The Pac-12 Conference inducted Coug legend John Olerud into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor in 2019. Olerud was named the Pac-12 Conference's Baseball Player of the Century in 2016. During his three seasons in a Cougar uniform, Olerud (1987-89) had one of the finest careers of any Cougar student-athlete, in any sport, in Washington State history, rewriting the WSU record books and becoming the only Cougar baseball athlete ever to be named College Athlete of the Year. In 1988, Olerud became the only player in NCAA history to win 15 games on the mound and hit 20 home runs in the same season, going 15-0 with 23 home runs that year. Olerud went 26-4 overall with a 3.17 ERA over 241.1 innings during his three seasons, hitting .434. He set two Pac-10 records and 10 Pac-10 North marks, highlighted by his sophomore season when he was named Athlete of the Year by Baseball America. In January prior to his junior year at WSU, Olerud suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of brain seizure. He missed the first 28 games of the spring season, but returned to hit .359 for WSU over the final 27 games. Prior to his senior season, Olerud signed a contract with Toronto and went directly to the Major Leagues. In 1993, he became the first Blue Jay to win a batting title, hitting .363. Olerud played for Toronto, the New York Mets and Yankees, Seattle and Boston during his 17-year career, winning back-to-back World Series titles with Toronto in 1992 and 1993. In 2001 he joined his father, John Sr., in the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame, and is a member of the College Baseball, State of Washington and Inland Northwest Sports Halls of Fame. The John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, given annually by the College Baseball Hall of Fame, was named in his honor and in 2016, he was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Century.