BSB: Recap of sweep over Santa Clara; Cougs toss combined no-hitter Sunday
Washington State swept Santa Clara this weekend, improving to 13-20 overall heading into this week's trip to Seattle where the Cougars will face Seattle U. on Wednesday night before squaring off with Apple Cup Series rival Washington beginning Friday at 7 p.m. PT. All three games against the Huskies will be televised by the Pac-12 Network. Here is the game-by-game recap of the Santa Clara series with video highlights of each victory.
Game 3: Cougs 5, Santa Clara 0 (Sunday)
Four Washington State pitchers combined to no-hit Santa Clara as the Cougars finished off a sweep with a 5-0 win at Bailey-Brayton Field Sunday afternoon.
Washington State (13-20) recorded its second no-hitter of the season after Scotty Sunitsch no-hit Oregon three weeks ago April 8. It is the first time WSU has tossed two no-hitters in the same season since also throwing two in 1976. The Cougars swept the three-game series with Santa Clara (16-21) for the first series sweep of 2018 and first since taking all four games from Utah Valley last season.
Cougar starting pitcher Parker McFadden, making his first start since 2016, struck out four in five innings, also walked two and hit one batter. Lefthander A.J. Block struck out one in the next 1.1 innings before righthander Collin Maier got the final two outs in the seventh. Senior closer Ryan Walker worked the final two innings and struck out three along the way.
Offensively, Andres Alvarez doubled and tripled while Dillon Plew had a two-run double. The Cougars scored three runs in the second and twice more in the fifth when WSU tacked on two more runs on a Collin Montez RBI single back up the middle before WSU executed a first and third double steal as Montez stole second and Blake Clanton stole home for a 5-0 WSU lead.
Game 2: Cougs 11, Santa Clara 3 (Saturday)
Washington State collected 13 hits, including a pair of home runs, to post a 11-3 victory over Santa Clara at Bailey-Brayton Field Saturday afternoon. Cal Waterman walloped a two-run homer and Danny Sinatro hit a two-run inside-the-park home run to back starter Scotty Sunitsch, who struck out seven in six innings to improve to 4-1.
Four players recorded multiple-hit games led by three-hit performances from Andres Alvarez and Mason De La Cruz. Alvarez doubled twice and drove in two runs while De La Cruz doubled and tripled for his first career extra-base hits.
WSU scored in four straight innings beginning in the second and cruised to a series-clinching win over Santa Clara (16-20).
The Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a Waterman two-run homer to centerfield in the second inning. In the third, Wyatt Segle delivered a two-run single back up the middle with the bases loaded for a 4-0 advantage. Sinatro stepped in a drove a ball the other way just inside the left field line past the sliding Santa Clara leftfielder. It allowed Sinatro to race around for a two-run inside-the-park-home run.
Game 1: Cougs 12, Santa Clara 10 (Friday)
Senior Blake Clanton hit a school-record four doubles to lead Washington State past Santa Clara in the series-opener, 12-10, in front of a season-high 1,464 fans at Bailey-Brayton Field Friday evening.
Clanton doubled in each of his first four at-bats, breaking the previous Cougar record of three that was accomplished 15 times and most recently in 2007. Clanton's mark also tied the Pac-12 Conference record and he became just the fifth player to double at least four times in a game among all Division I players in 2018. The senior outfielder went 4-for-5 with a career-high four RBI and three runs scored.
Washington State (11-20) collected 15 hits, receiving multiple-hit games from Collin Montez, Robert Teel, James Rudkin and Dillon Plew along with another impressive relief outing from Ryan Walker, who closed the door with 2.1 scoreless innings to notch his fourth save of the season. A.J. Block earned his first win of the season after 1.2 scoreless innings for relief, striking out three along the way.
Rallying from an early 8-3 deficit, the Cougars took a 9-8 lead in the fourth inning on a Robert Teel sacrifice fly. Santa Clara regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning but WSU came right back in the bottom of the frame. JJ Hancock singled in a run and one batter later, Clanton doubled in a pair of runs for a 12-10 lead. Neither team scored over the final four innings.