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WSU baseball (4-3) split a doubleheader Friday with Long Island University (3-4) in Peoria, AZ.
LIU won the opening contest by the score of 8-3. The Cougs jumped out in front 3-0 in the first inning, but their bats were basically silenced the final eight innings of play. Cam Liss got the start for Wazzu and really filled up the stat sheet, and not in a good way. He went 3 1/3 innings striking out four, walking three while surrendering four hits to allow a pair of earned runs to cross the plate. Cougar bats collected eight hits while leaving six runners on base.
Perhaps Wazzu batters prefer a later start than 12noon because they came alive in the second game. They rapped out 10 hits to go along with seven walks en route to an 8-0 shutout of LIU. McKabe Cottrell turned in an outstanding pitching performance going seven scoreless innings, striking out eight while giving up just one walk. Dakota Hawkins pitched the final two shutout innings highlighted by four strikeouts. The Wazzu offense was led by third baseman Jack Smith who went three-for-five including a pair of doubles and two RBI.
The final game of this series will be played Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 12noon.
https://www.cougcenter.com/2022/2/25/22951210/washington-state-cougars-baseball-beats-long-island-university -
Washington State women's swimming continued to shake up the record book with four more Top-10 times during day three at the 2022 Pac-12 Conference Championships held at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, WA, Friday.
Senior Taylor McCoy started the evening session by finishing eighth in the 400 IM and freshman Sophie Macy later added a 4:16.94, good for an NCAA "B" time and the sixth-fastest time in WSU history. Macy had already posted the eighth-fastest time in program history in the morning prelims before cutting nearly three seconds off her time in the evening finals.
In the 100 Breast, sophomore Hailey Grotte posted the eighth-fastest time in program history with a 1:02.01, improving her spot on the Top-10 from two spots set this past November.
In the evening's final event, freshman Noelle Harvey led off the 400 medley relay with a 54.89 in the 100 Backstroke, the ninth-fastest time in program history.
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
