BSB: Walker sparks convincing win over Arizona; Rubber game Sunday
Washington State junior hurler Ryan Walker working 5.2 impressive innings to lead the Cougars to a 9-3 win over No. 8 Arizona in front of 1,550 fans at Bailey-Brayton Field Saturday afternoon.
The Cougars (15-13, 2-6 Pac-12) backed Walker with 11 hits, including three-hit games by freshman second baseman Dillon Plew and junior first baseman James Rudkin, who also drove in three runs.
Walker allowed just two earned runs on five hits in 5.2 innings while striking out two to earn the win against the Wildcats (22-8, 6-5 Pac-12), who entered the weekend's action as the nation's top scoring team.
Washington State used a couple of two-out hits to push two runs across in the first inning. Justin Harrer and Shane Matheny both walked before Cory Meyer muscled a single into centerfield to score Harrer. Rudkin followed with bloop single down the right field line that scored Matheny for a 2-0 WSU advantage.
WSU added a run in the second inning after Ryan Ramsower led off the inning with bloop double into right field and later scored on an Andres Alvarez sacrifice fly.
The Cougars pushed their lead to 7-0 with a four-run third inning. Matheny and Meyer were both hit by a pitch and Rudkin later singled through the left side to score Matheny. Meyer then scored on Ramsower's fielder's choice that saw Arizona commit a throwing error to keep two runners on.
Alvarez followed with a bloop double down the left field line to score a run and Plew capped the scoring with a line single into centerfield that scored Danny Sinatro.
Walker retired eight straight Arizona batters before allowing a leadoff single in the sixth when Arizona pushed two runs across, using three hits and a sacrifice fly.
Senior reliever Trenton Dupre took over for Walker with a runner on first and ended the inning with a strikeout. Dupre fired 2.1 scoreless innings of relief, striking out four and allowing just one hit.
In the bottom half of the sixth inning, the Cougars added two more runs on a Rudkin fielder's choice RBI groundout and a two-out bloop RBI double by J.J. Hancock down the left field line that made it 9-2 Washington State.
The Wildcats scored a run in the ninth until junior reliever Joe Rosenstein entered the game with one out and the bases loaded and got the final two outs to seal up the 9-3 victory.
