Washington State Heads to Air Force for Final Conference Series

Friday, May 8

USAF Academy, CO

2 p.m.

Washington State University

Air Force

Washington State Heads to Air Force for Final Conference Series

May 07, 2026 | Baseball

Washington State Game Notes Air Force Game Notes LISTEN WATCH LIVE STATS

By: Washington State Athletic Communications

WASHINGTON STATE HEADS TO AIR FORCE FOR FINAL CONFERENCE SERIES
Washington State, winners of five straight weekend series, heads to Colorado Springs for a weekend series at Air Force beginning Friday at 2 p.m. (PT), continuing Saturday at Noon (PT) and wraps up Sunday at 11 a.m. (PT).

PROBABLE STARTERS
Nick Lewis | LHP | RS-So. | 7-2, 3.50 ERA, 74.2 IP, 48 K VS. Aiden Poe | RHP | Fr. | 3-1, 6.55 ERA, 33.0 IP, 24 K
Griffin Smith | RHP | Sr. | 4-4, 5.51 ERA, 67.0 IP, 41 K VS. Ethan Dillinger | LHP | Jr. | 1-1, 8.81 ERA, 31.2 IP, 32 K
TBA VS. TBA

FOLLOW ALONG
All three games will have livestats, webstreamed on the Mountain West Network and on the radio.

ON DECK
WSU will close out its regular season hosting Seattle U Tuesday at 4:05 p.m. The Mountain West Conference will wrap up play next weekend but the Cougars will have a weekend bye. The Mountain West Conference Tournament is set for May 21-24 at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz.

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

ABOUT WASHINGTON STATE
Washington State has won five straight weekend series and six of its last seven weekend series (Grand Canyon, at San Jose State, Gardner-Webb, at UNLV, New Mexico, Fresno State) and has won 13 of its last 18 games. The Cougars took two of three against Fresno State in Pullman last weekend to notch their fifth-straight series win. WSU enters the weekend with an 25-23 overall record including a 13-9 mark in Mountain West Conference play, good for third the conference standings and one game back of first place. Infielder Gavin Roy is ninth in the MWC with a team-high .345 batting average while Ryan Skjonsby is tied for fifth with 44 RBI and paces the club with eight home runs. Starter Nick Lewis paces the conference in ERA (3.50), innings (74.2) and tied for the lead in wins (7). Head coach Nathan Choate is in his third season at WSU.

ABOUT AIR FORCE
Air Force enters the weekend with a 23-22 overall record and 14-7 mark in conference play and is the only team who has clinched a spot in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. The Falcons took two of three at New Mexico last weekend. WSU leads the all-time series with Air Force 5-3 and both teams took two of three at home in the two series played last season.

HOT STRETCH
Washington State notched its fifth straight weekend series win last weekend after taking two of three from Fresno State. WSU has its first five-series winning streak since 1999 after series wins at San Jose State, Gardner-Webb, at UNLV, New Mexico and Fresno State.

COUGARS STEPPING UP ON THE ROAD
Washington State's 12 road wins this season are tied for the third-most road wins by a Cougar team since the 2000 season. WSU opened the season with a win at Alabama, two at Cal Poly, two at Long Beach State, one at Texas State, one at San Diego State, one at Seattle U and took two in each series win at San Jose State and UNLV.

HARTMAN BREAKS TRIPLES RECORD, COUGARS REACH TRIPLES MARK
Senior Max Hartman started off last Friday's win over Fresno State with an opposite-field RBI-triple off the left field wall in the first inning, breaking the WSU single-season record for triples with his eighth of the season. Hartman's eighth triple broke the record shared by Dave Jones (1959), Andy Alvis (1980), Greg Monda (1983) and Greg Barton (1984). Hartman enters the weekend tied for the national lead with eight triples (Andrew Duncan, Wright State), the most since two-sport legend Steve Gleason had six in 1998. WSU's 20 triples lead the Mountain West and are tied for second-most nationally behind New Mexico State (22).

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
100 - Max Hartman is the 1st Cougar to 100 total bases, 10 2B, 8 3B, 5 HR, 31 RBI, 16 SB
99 - WSU has been hit by a pitch 99 times, 3rd-most in WSU single-season history
81 - WSU returned 81% of its innings from last season, the 10th-most nationally (D1Baseball)
45 - WSU has turned 45 double plays to lead the Mountain West and No. 12 nationally
19 - WSU played its first 19 games of the season on the road (7-12)
14 - Ryan Skjonsby has 14 RBI in the 7th inning or later in 2026, leads team with 44 total RBI
13 - 13 Cougar Pitchers return with Division I innings, WSU entered last year with just 2
12 - WSU's 12 road wins in 2026 are 4-times as many as last year (3), tied for 3rd-most since 2000
8 - Gavin Roy has 8 RBI in the 7th inning or later in 2026
5.06 ERA - WSU paces the Mountain West with a 5.06 ERA in conference games
5 - WSU's roster features 5 Canadians; C Alexandre Giguère, OF Max Hartman, C Cam Macleod,
RHP Scott Rienguette, SS Gavin Roy
5 - WSU has won 5 straight weekend series for the 1st time since 1999
4 - WSU has 4 team captains, LHP Nick Lewis, RHP Luke Meyers, SS Gavin Roy, 1B Ryan Skjonsby
3 - WSU owns 3 QUAD 1 wins in 2026 (at Alabama, at Texas State, Oregon State)
3 - 2 former Cougs are in the big leagues; Kyle Manzardo (1B, CLE), Ryan Walker (RHP, SFG)
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)

NICK LEWIS NAMED MOUNTAIN WEST PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Lefthander Nick Lewis was named Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week, the conference office announced Monday. Lewis earned his team-leading seventh win of the season after firing a complete-game five-hitter to open WSU's series win against Fresno State. The Cougars won their fifth-straight weekend series for the first time since 1999. The redshirt-sophomore allowed just one unearned run in the Cougars 5-1 win Friday evening to earn the most wins since 2015. Lewis earns his second career conference weekly award after earning Mountain West Pitcher and Freshman of the Week last season. Lewis is 7-2, tying for the league lead in wins, leading the conference with a 3.50 ERA and 74.2 innings, and fourth in batting average against (.254).

COUGARS KNOCK OFF NO. 7 OREGON STATE
Washington State collected 12 hits and knocked off seventh-ranked Oregon State 7-6 at Bailey-Brayton Field April 7. Ryan Skjonsby had three hits and three RBI, Dustin Robinson had two hits and scored two runs while six Cougar pitchers combined to hold the Beavers to just six hits including three through the first eight innings. WSU freshman righthander Ryan Falke was impressive in his first career start, striking out five in three scoreless frames. WSU used a three-run first and a run in the third to build a 4-0 lead in support of Falke. OSU scored three times in the sixth but the Cougars answered with a pair of runs in their half of the sixth and another in the eighth. OSU used three hits to score three times in the ninth but Scott Rienguette ended the win with a strikeout. Reliever Rylan Haider earned the win.

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.

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.

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.

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.