WSU dropped a heartbreaker to the Ducks on Saturday night, losing 4-0. WSU got a masterful performance from senior Luke Meyers who pitched into the 7th, and Oregon only led 1-0 entering the ninth. The Ducks finally struck gold in the top of the inning, launching a three-run shot over the center field fence. PK Park was electric Saturday night
Washington State (31-26) was the home team, despite playing the host #11 Oregon Ducks (41-16) in the first game of the winners bracket at the Eugene Regional.
The Cougs looked to build on their momentous win over Oregon State in the opener yesterday, defeating the Beavers for the second time this season, 3-2. Oregon, came into the game with a chance to advance to the title round of their own regional after crushing Yale 14-2 on Friday night.
The Ducks are looking to earn redemption from last season, where they famously were bounced from their own regional by Utah Valley and Cal Poly.
The Cougs went with Luke Meyers to start the game, who pitched the majority of the second game at the Mountain West tournament. Griffin Smith started that game, only pitching one inning while getting tagged; Meyers ended up pitching 7 innings of relief. It was assumed that without Nick Lewis on the mound, the WSU pitchers would have a very short leash.
Will Sanford got the nod for the Ducks, coming into the game with a 8-2 record, and a 3.75 ERA in 74 innings pitched. Thanks to Yale, the Ducks were forced to use five pitchers on Friday night. Of course, Washington State only used one, giving the WSU bullpen the advantage of being well rested. However, the Ducks were not forced to use any of their “leverage” arms. Regardless, the Cougs certainly wanted to push the Oregon bullpen to the limit.
The Friday afternoon contest against Oregon State was certainly a road game for the Cougs, but not to this level. The host Ducks packed PK Park and made it a really challenging environment for WSU all night long.
Two cans of corn to left on the first three pitches helped settle senior righty Meyers into the game. It took him only 6 pitches to cut down the Ducks in the top of the 1st inning, as he struck out Drew Smith in 3 pitches to end the inning. 6 pitches, 6 strikes.
Sanford matched the energy in the bottom of the inning, striking out the Cougs in order, in 16 pitches. Sanford is the Ducks ace, whom they saved for the Saturday game, a strategy some of the other host teams used as well.
Meyers had another efficient inning, forcing a soft line out and two weak ground balls to second baseman Gavin Roy. Sanford continued his hot start striking out Matt Priest and Dustin Robinson, before Ryan Skjonsby popped out to third. Five strikeouts in the first two innings for the Cougs.
9 up 9 down for Meyers. 32 pitches, 2 strikeouts, and a lot of weak contact through 3 innings. Cam Macleod became the first base runner of the ball game with WSU’s 5th hit by pitch of this regional. Macleod advanced on a throwing error to second base, but the Cougs couldn’t cash him in. Yet, they made Sanford work a little, who had 51 pitches through 3 innings.
Meyers was on fire through 4 innings and a true pitching duel was taking shape, as he added two K’s in the top of the 4th. Will Sanford was absolutely shoving, 10 K’s through 4 innings of work.
The game remained hitless going into the 5th where Oregon’s Burke-Lee Mabeus doubled to earn the Ducks their first base runner. Meyers punched out Naulivou Lauaki and after a walk to Maddox Moloney, gave up a two-out rbi single to Jax Gimenez. Ducks entered the half-inning without hit, and left with a 1-0 lead.
Ollie Obenour worked a 2-out walk and Macleod singled through the left side for WSU’s first base hit, but then Will Sanford bounced back to strike out Kyler Northrop, his 12th of the day matching a career high. WSU trailed Oregon 1-0 going into the 6th, but they managed to push Sanford to 88 pitches.
A leadoff single for Oregon in the 6th and a masterful bunt by Drew Smith set up 1st and 2nd with only 1 out for Brayden Jaksa, who grounded into a 5-4-3 around the horn double play.
Nothing doing for the Cougs in the 6th, as Max Hartman struck out for the third time giving Will Sanford his career high 13th strikeout.
Luke Meyers pitched into the 7th inning, allowing a leadoff walk, which turned into a 4-6-3 double play.
After a Dustin Robinson walk, Will Sanford’s career night was done. 14 Ks in 6.1 innings for Sanford, and stud reliever Tanner Bradley (1.86 ERA in 48.1 innings pitched) took over for the Ducks. Ryan Skjonsby rolled over to first to move Robinson to 2nd, the 2nd time the Cougs had a runner in scoring position in the game. Ollie Obenour geared up for the fastball, and Bradley slowed it down on him and the Cougs remained scoreless through 7.
Luke Meyers was everything the Cougs could have hoped for and more. He had 7.1 innings of one-run baseball, fueled by 7 Ks and two double plays. WSU starting pitching in the Eugene Regional combined for 16.1 innings and just 3 earned runs in 2 games. He was replaced by Mountain West title game hero Scott Rienguette.
Rienguette, aided by Jax Gimenez running himself into a pickle, promptly struck out Ryan Cooney to end the top of the 8th. The Cougs headed into the bottom of the 8th looking for anything on offense. WSU went quietly in the 8th, striking out for the 17th time in the ball game. It was 1-0 heading to the 9th.
Noah Thein came in for the Cougs, and the Ducks played a little small ball. Pinch hitter Angel Layla led off the inning with a single to center, and was immediately pinch ran for speedster Elijah Cook, before Drew Smith laid down a nice bunt up the first base line to advance Cook to 2nd. Then the Ducks finally got into one, as Lauaki drilled a ball to dead center, for a three-run shot. With the Cougs trailing 4-0, that felt like a kill shot.
Devin Bell came in to finish off Oregon’s pitching stellar night, and despite Max Hartman’s single, WSU was held scoreless, putting them on the brink of elimination.
If you had told coach Choate he was going to get that kind of performance from Luke Meyers, he would have taken it in a hot second. The decision to lift Rienguette after just two batters remains curious, but you cannot fault the pitching staff for allowing only four runs. Ultimately the offense sputtered, and Washington State will have to get back off the mat just like they have all season long. As Coach Choate said in his postgame presser “I’ve told you before, we can take a punch”.
Gavin Roy echoed the same notion “We’ve always found a way to bounce back from tough losses, and that is what we are going to do tomorrow”.
WSU will play a rematch against Oregon State in an Elimination game tomorrow at 1pm, for the right to play the Ducks in the regional final.
