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Cougar baseball (11-18, 3-10 Pac-12) took to the road for a weekend series in Tucson with the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats, who were in first place in the Pac-12. It's important to note that the Cougs brought their bats with them on the trip. That was evident Friday night as Wazzu defeated the 'Cats (21-9, 9-4 Pac-12) in a conference matchup by a score of 11-5.
WSU erupted with 14 hits while playing solid errorless defense. What's encouraging about the Cougs defeating a nationally-ranked ballclub is they had to come back from a 4-0 deficit to earn the victory. Cole McMillan started the game in a less-than-stellar fashion walking two and hitting a batter in the home half of the first to load the bases. As if that wasn't bad enough, McMillan served up a batting practice fastball down the heart of the plate. N. Turley sent a space shot, that may still be airborne, for a grand slam. McMillan settled in a pitched shutout ball for the next four innings before yielding a final run in the sixth inning. The Wazzu bullpen took over from that point and held the 'Cats scoreless the rest of the way to preserve the win.
UA coach Chip Hale summed things up nicely during post-game interviews. "We just got our butt kicked," lamented Hale.
The second of a three-game series with Arizona will be played Saturday night with the first pitch scheduled for 6pm.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/4/8/baseball-cougar-bats-back-mcmillan-take-opener-at-no-9-arizona.aspx -
The Washington State men's and women's track and field teams recorded 13 top-three event finishes, and four event wins Friday, April 8, at the Whitworth Peace Meet in Spokane, Washington.
Sophomore Jared McAlvey had a record-setting day at the Whitworth Pine Bowl. McAlvey won the 400m hurdles and set a Boppell Track record with a time of 51.66. His time is also a new personal record in the event. The sophomore also recorded another personal record in the men's 100m dash with a time of 10.75 seconds to place third.
Senior Joseph Heitman recorded a season-best long jump with a distance of 6.89m to place second overall in the event. He would also go on to place third in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.83 seconds.
Junior Suzy Pace jumped her way to first place in the women's high jump as Cougs claimed the top-three spots in the event. Pace won the event by clearing a season-best height of 1.71m. Sophomores Giovanna Rhoads and Kaylee Sowle placed second and third overall with a mark of 1.61m.
Continuing with field events, sophomore Audrey Hughes and senior Anna Rodgers won their events in Spokane. Hughes placed first in the discus for the second time this season with a mark of 43.39m. Rodgers won her first event of the 2022 outdoor season by leaping a season-best 5.87m in the women's long jump event.
In the women's hammer throw, four Cougars placed inside the top five. Senior Sasha Korolenko had the best throw by a Coug, placing second overall with a distance of 53.18m. Sophomore Tara Koonce finished in third with a mark of 52.81m and was followed by junior Amy Kramer (52.23m) and freshman Alexandra Payne (52.10m) to round out the top five. -
Washington State women's tennis upset bid fell one match short as the No. 9 California Golden Bears escaped with a 4-3 victory Friday afternoon at the Simmelink Tennis Courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse.
On a day when weather forced the match inside, the Cougars (6-13, 1-7 Pac-12) came out strong, capturing wins on Courts 1 and 2 to take the opening doubles point. On Court 2, Savanna Ly-Nguyen and Yang Lee led the entire way en route to a 6-4 win over Haley Giavara and Hannah Viller Moeller. The Cougars clinched the point when Michaela Bayerlova and Maxine Murphy posted a 6-4 win over Jessica Alsola and Katja Wiersholm, the nation's 33rd-ranked doubles team. Court 3 was stopped with WSU's Hania Abouelsaad and Fifa Kumhom tied 5-5 with Julia Rosenqvist and Erin Richardson.
Go Cougs!!!
- 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 ...
