Playing at home for just the fourth time on the year, Washington State suffered from a handful of self-induced mistakes that allowed No. 3 Stanford to pull away for a 7-1 win Friday night at Bailey-Brayton Field. A

first inning error cost the Cougars (6-18, 0-4 Pac-12) a pair of unearned runs, putting WSU in a hole early it would not be able to climb out of despite outhitting the Cardinal, 10-9, in the contest.

The Cougs would have their chances throughout the night, led by Andres Alvarez, who went 3-for-4 while driving in the lone run for the home team in the contest. After doubling in his first at bat of the night, Alvarez would come up big in the third with the RBI single that pulled the Cougs to within one.

In each case, Alvarez would find himself stranded on the basepaths as his freshman Kyle Manzardo sent a pair of deep flys to the wall in each of his first two at bats only to come up just short of putting the Cougars ahead of the visiting Cardinal.

The missed chances early to take the lead would come back to bite the Cougars as the game wore on as the Cardinal slowly added to their lead scoring a single run in the fifth while taking on runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings of play. In each case, WSU's pitchers were up to the task against the Cardinal hitters only to fall victim to miscues in the field that allowed Stanford to add to their lead.

In the seventh, the Cougars gave up a pair of unearned runs despite picking up four strikeouts in the frame, three coming from reliever Ky Bush who struck out the side but ultimately was tagged with the harm.

In total, the Cougars pitchers struck out 13 in nine innings of work with freshman Brandon White (2-3) suffering the hard luck loss after going 4.1 innings while striking out three and giving up three runs, one of which was earned.

In relief, Zane Mills struck out two and gave up two hits in 1.0 inning in relief while Bush went 1.1 innings, striking out five and giving up two hits and two runs, both unearned.

Connor Barison and Trent Sellers finished off the contest for the Cougars, combining for 2.1 innings pitched with three strikeouts and two runs given up, the lone earned run going against Barison in the eighth. While the Cougar pitchers kept grinding, WSU's hitters came up with 10 hits, but could not find the break out hit when needed.

WSU would put runners on in seven of the nine innings against the Cardinal while putting runners in scoring position in four of the seven innings. The top of the order came up with six of the 10 hits for the Cougars with Alvarez posting three hits to lead the way while Collin Montez added a 2-for-4 night and Dillon Plew chipped in one hit and scored a run.

On the other side, the Cardinal notched nine hits including coming up with five two-out hits. Additionally, five of Stanford's seven runs came with two outs. WIll Matthiessen was the lone Cardinal to record a multi-hit game after finishing the night 3-for-4 with four RBI and one run scored.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Collin Montez pushed his season average to .326 with his two hits on the night. . .Andres Alvarez improved his season average to .296 after going 3-for-4. . . The Cougars used five pitchers in the contest, all freshmen.

NEXT UP: Game 2 of the three game series with No. 3 Stanford is set for Saturday, March 30 with the first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m.