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Well Cougar fans, the WSU baseball team (12-18, 4-10 Pac-12) staged a magnificent comeback against No. 9 Arizona (21-10, 9-5 Pac-12) yesterday and squeaked out a 6-5 conference win down in Arizona. Kyle Russell delivered the game-tying RBI-single in the eighth and drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out RBI-single in the ninth inning to earn the victory. He lined a 1-2 pitch into centerfield to drive in the go-ahead score.
After Wazzu plated runs in the second and third for a 2-0 lead, Arizona loaded the bases in the fourth and Grant Taylor induced a groundball that nearly ended the inning but the throw was wide of second and two runs scored on the play. The Wildcats added three more runs on three-straight two-out bloop singles for a 5-2 lead. All five runs were unearned. Taylor ended up going seven innings, giving up eight hits while striking out six to only earn a no-decision. The tying and winning runs were scored after Chase Grillo (1-0) replaced Taylor and got the final six outs of the ballgame. Grillo struck out three over the final two innings.
It didn't seem we'd be reporting this based on the course of the last few weeks of Cougar baseball, but WSU will go for a series sweep Sunday at 12:05pm. The game will be telecast on Arizona Live Stream-3.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/4/9/baseball-cougars-notch-comeback-win-to-clinch-series-at-no-9-arizona.aspx -
The Washington State rowing team collected a pair of second-place finishes to highlight the first day of the Pac-12 Invitational at Lake Las Vegas.
The first varsity eight and second varsity four boats each finished second in their respective races. Meanwhile, the second varsity eight boat placed third in its race, while the first varsity four picked up a fourth-place finish.
"We were happy to get our second race of the season under our belt," said WSU Rowing Head Coach Jane LaRiviere. "As usual we learned a lot. We will focus on improving a couple of things and hope to be a little better tomorrow."
The 2V4+ got the regatta started for the Cougars by clocking in at 7:19.00 to finish second in its race. Washington State kicked it into gear over the final 250 meters of the race, as WSU closed the gap on Washington and had overlap with SMU's boat before the race ended. The Cougars finished only 1.51 seconds behind first-place SMU, while WSU finished 2.93 seconds ahead of Washington. The 1V8+ got off to a fast start and led its heat midway through the race. The Cougars would lose a little pace, as Washington passed WSU with a little more than 250 meters to go. Washington State maintained open water over Iowa and Clemson, as the Cougs finished second with a time of 6:38.08. It was a photo-finish for second place in the 2V8+ race. Clemson crossed the finish line 0.62 seconds ahead of the Cougars, as Washington State took third with a time of 6:42.64. The 1V4+ wrapped up its heat in fourth place, timing in at 7:25.12.
Washington State will be back on the water Sunday, April 11, as the Cougars conclude the Pac-12 Invitational. Races on Lake Las Vegas begins at 8:40 a.m.
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 ...
