NCAA BASEBALL: Cougs blanked by Oregon, play Oregon State again today
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 8 hours, 30 minutes AGO
Washington State Athletics Washington State senior right-hander Luke Meyers is congratulated by teammates after coming out of the game in the eighth inning against Oregon in an NCAA baseball tournament regional game Saturday night in Eugene, Ore.
From local reports and news services
EUGENE, Ore. — Senior right-hander Luke Meyers worked into the eighth inning and Washington State went toe-to-toe with No. 11 national seed and No. 15-ranked Oregon but the Cougars managed just two hits and dropped a 4-0 contest in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s Eugene Regional before 4,278 at PK Park on Saturday evening.
“Yeah, obviously disappointing to lose, but I'm really proud of our effort,” WSU coach Nathan Choate said. “There's things worse in life than losing, and it's regret. I don't think anybody in our program should have any regrets. We didn't lose. I thought Oregon beat us. They just played better baseball, but I'm super proud of these guys and everybody in our program.”
Third seed WSU (31-27) will play second seed Oregon State (44-3) today at 1 p.m. in an elimination game. The winner will play Oregon (42-16) tonight at 6, needing to beat the Ducks twice to advance to a Super Regional. Oregon needs just one win to advance.
WSU edged Oregon State 3-2 in the regional’s first game Friday. OSU came back Saturday afternoon and downed fourth seed Yale (30-15-1) 9-2 in an elimination game.
The Cougars allowed a fifth-inning RBI-single and trailed 1-0 entering the ninth inning before the Ducks tacked on a three-run home run by Naulivou Lauaki Jr.
Meyers matched career highs with 7.1 innings and seven strikeouts while allowing just one earned run before exiting with one out in the eighth inning.
Oregon starter Will Sanford struck out 14 and walked two, hit a batter and allowed a single. Cam Macleod singled in the fifth inning and Max Hartman singled in the ninth inning for WSU.
The Cougars threated in the fifth as Ollie Obenour walked and Macleod pulled a two-out single through the left side to put two runners on, but Oregon ended the frame with a strikeout.
Gavin Roy had his school-record 44-game on-base streak snapped.
“Yeah, I thought he was good,” Roy said of Sanford. “I thought he attacked with the fastball early, and then he did a good job working his other stuff off of it. But as an offense, we need to be better, and I'm confident we're going to do that tomorrow.”