April 21, 2008

Pullman, WA (UWIRE) -- The WSU baseball team was unable to hold onto leads in all three games as they were swept out of the desert by Arizona.

Despite holding the Wildcats (25-11, 6-6 Pac-10) to 16 runs in the series and grabbing early leads in each game, the Cougars (19-18, 3-9) could not come through with big plays with the game on the line and suffered their fourth straight defeat.

On Sunday, the Cougars jumped out to 1-0 lead in the second inning when Greg Lagried singled and scored on a ground-out by Scott Suttmeier. Arizona tied the game with a run in the fourth but then the Cougars answered in the fifth with a triple from Travis Coulter and a double from Gran to take a 2-1 lead.

Arizona then came back and took the lead for good with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth. Chad Arnold gave the Cougars a strong start on the mound, giving up two runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 innings but received a no-decision on the day.

"Once again, we played good, just not good enough to win," WSU head coach Donnie Marbut said in a news release. "You have to score more than two runs on Sunday in the Pac-10. The only positive I can take out of this is Chad Arnold gave us a great effort on the mound."

The Cougars began the series on Friday with a 12-inning marathon that lasted 4 hours, 19 minutes. WSU used a four-run rally in the sixth to tie the game at 6 and ultimately force extra innings, but fell short in the end, losing 7-6.

The Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning thanks to a run-scoring triple from Michael Weber and a two-out error by Arizona. The Wildcats bounced back in the third with four runs and then added two more in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead.

Weber opened the sixth inning for the Cougars with a single and Alex Burg followed with a walk. One out later, Travis Coulter delivered with an RBI single and Scott Suttmeier followed with a two-run double.

Davis was one of four Cougar pitchers used in the game. Ross Humes started the game and lasted five innings, giving up four earned runs on 10 hits.

Matt Way gave the Cougars some much-needed solid relief work with 5 2/3 innings of work. Way surrendered one run on three hits while striking out a career-high nine.

The Cougars suffered another tough loss on Saturday with a 6-5 defeat. This time it was Brad Glenn who delivered the late game heroics for Arizona with a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The game-winning homer came with one out off Seth Harvey. The Cougars took a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth inning after Coulter came through with an RBI fielder's choice.

WSU jumped out to 2-0 lead for the second game in a row thanks to a two-run home run by Jim Murphy in the first inning. The blast was Murphy's 10th of the season and scored Gran, who was aboard from a double.

Arizona took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning before Burg tied the game at three with an RBI double. The Cougars then took a 4-3 lead in the seventh behind an RBI single from Coulter before Arizona scored the equalizing run in the bottom of the seventh.

The Cougars return home to Pullman for a seven-game homestand beginning with Gonzaga on Tuesday.

(C) 2008 Daily Evergreen via UWIRE