NCAA BASEBALL: Surprise? Not to Cougs

From local reports and news services 

EUGENE, Ore. — They hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in 16 seasons. 

Then once they got there, the Washington State Cougars didn’t get a hit for the first five innings against Oregon State. 

But their star sophomore left-hander, Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year Nick Lewis, kept WSU in it until the offense came around. 

The third-seeded Cougars got their first hit and tied it for the second time in the sixth inning, then took the lead for good in the eighth and beat the second-seeded and seventh-ranked Beavers 3-2 in the first round of the Eugene Regional on Friday afternoon before 4,186 at PK Park. 

“Super proud of our program,” third-year WSU coach Nathan Choate said. “I don’t think anyone in our program is shocked. I know there’s a lot of other people that are shocked. But I think our program, and our players, are not shocked.  

“And obviously, Nick pitched his butt off, so, pretty proud.”

Lewis threw a 103-pitch complete game for WSU (31-26), scattering six hits. He struck out one and picked up his 10th win of the season, the most since Matt O’Brien in 2000. 

“I thought I had pretty good command of all three pitches throughout,” Lewis said. “And I was attacking the strike zone and letting the defense work. And I knew the offense would give us a chance.” 

WSU’s 31 wins are the most wins 2010, their last NCAA Regional appearance and the win is the Cougars first NCAA win since beating Arkansas in the 2010 regional. 

The Cougars will play No. 1 seed Oregon (41-16) tonight at 6 p.m. Oregon defeated No. 4 Yale (30-14-1) 14-2 on Friday. Oregon State will play Yale at 1 p.m. in an elimination game.

The Cougars received two-hit games from Max Hartman and Matt Priest. Hartman stole a base and scored twice and Priest had a pair of RBI singles. Dustin Robinson broke a 2-2 tied with an eighth-inning RBI double down the right field line. 

Gavin Roy walked twice and scored a run, breaking the school record with his 44th consecutive game reaching base, breaking former Lake City High star and current Cleveland Guardian Kyle Manzardo’s record of 23 (2019-21). 

In the first, the Cougars put two runners on after a walk and hit-by-pitch but OSU ended the early threat with a groundout. The Beavers took a 1-0 lead after back-to-back one-out doubles. 

WSU evened things up with a run in the fourth inning. Hartman was hit by a pitch, and one batter later, Robinson was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. On a called strike three, Hartman and Robinson both stole and the throw to third was wide and down the left field line, allowing Hartman to score. 

The Beavers (43-13) answered an inning later with a leadoff double and late scored after a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly to left field for a 2-1 lead. 

The Cougars came right back in the sixth inning. Roy worked a leadoff walk to break the WSU on-base record and Hartman muscled a single into right-center field — the Cougars’ first hit of the game. Priest delivered a two-strike RBI single through the left side, tying the game at 2-2. 

In the eighth, Hartman singled through the right side and Priest followed with a single through the left side. With runners on first and second, Robinson won an eight-pitch battle with an RBI-double down inside the first base bag and down the right field line to score Hartman for a 3-2 lead. 

In the bottom of the inning, OSU doubled with one out and moved to third on a groundout but Lewis ended the frame with a flyout to right field. Lewis closed things out with a pair of groundouts and fly out to center field in the ninth. 

Choate said WSU is a different team than the one that lost 18-0 to Oregon State in Pullman in April. 

While those outside the Cougar program may have been surprised by Friday’s win over a program which has won the College World Series three times since 2006, WSU insisted it was not. 

“I think we were mostly focused on us,” Hartman said. “We knew if we played good baseball, we could beat anybody in the country.” 

"We've done a good job of tuning out the noise,” Lewis added. 

"I don’t think there was a rallying cry,” Choate said. 

    Washington State Athletics Washington State sophomore shortstop Kyler Northrop (5) celebrates after the Cougars beat Oregon State on Friday in a regional first-round game of the NCAA tournament Friday in Eugene, Ore.