NCAA baseball: WSU assigned to Eugene Regional

From news services

Washington State was selected to the Eugene Regional hosted by the University of Oregon, the NCAA baseball selection committee announced Monday.

By winning the Mountain West Conference tournament, WSU (30-26) earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2010 and its 17th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.

The Cougars will play Oregon State in Friday’s opening round at noon, and will join No. 11 national seed Oregon and Yale in the region.

Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference regular-season champion which was knocked out of the conference tournament in two games, did not receive an at-large bid to the 64-team field. The Zags had an RPI of 57.

WSU, which has an RPI of 82, went 3-1 in the Mountain West tournament last week, beating Air Force on Friday and San Diego State on Saturday to advance to the championship round. SDSU won Sunday’s opener 9-2 to force a winner-take-all title game that the Cougars claimed 14-4 in seven innings.

It is Washington State’s first conference title since winning the Pac-10 North in 1995 and the first overall conference title since beating UCLA in a playoff to win the 1976 Pac-8 title.

This season, the Cougars opened the season with an 8-4 win at Alabama and went on to record 17 road wins, the most by WSU since 2000, and seven series wins including six straight to close the season.

Cougar lefthander Nick Lewis earned Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year honors and enters the NCAA Tournament with a 9-2 record with 65 strikeouts and a 3.07 ERA in 91 innings. Infielder Gavin Roy, the MWC Tournament MVP, paces the club with a .372 batting average while Ryan Skjonsby leads the team with eight homers and 57 RBI.

Head coach Nathan Choate is in his third season leading the Cougars and earns his first trip to the NCAA Tournament in his seven years as a head coach.

Cougs punch ticket to NCAAs

MESA, Ariz. — Washington State won the 2026 Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship with a 14-4 victory in seven innings over San Diego State at Sloan Park on Sunday afternoon.

San Diego State (36-24) won the first game of the day 9-2 on Sunday to force the winner-take-all game, where the Cougars collected 14 hits and used three pitchers. SDSU, the regular season champions, used six pitchers.

In the deciding game, the Cougars rallied from a 4-3 deficit with a three-run fifth inning, a run in the sixth and seven more in the seventh to win by the 10-run rule. 

Eight Cougars recorded hits, led by Max Hartman who tallied three hits with four RBI, three runs scored and hit a three-run homer. Trevor Smith drove in three runs, Gavin Roy scored three times, Dustin Robinson doubled twice and drove in two runs and Ryan Skjonsby drove in three runs.    

Cougar reliever Scott Rienguette earned with win with a 3.2 scoreless innings and six strikeouts.

Roy reached on a bunt single in the first to extend his on-base streak to 43 games, tying the school record set by former Lake City High and WSU star Kyle Manzardo in 2019-21.