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May 30—With a one-run lead, a rested bullpen and the tying run 90 feet from home plate in the eighth inning of Washington State's first NCAA Regional baseball game in 16 years, Cougar coach Nathan Choate walked onto the mound to visit his ace.
Nick Lewis had done an admirable job mowing down the Oregon State Beavers during an NCAA Regional opening round encounter between former Pac-12 foes in a former Pac-12 venue Friday at PK Park in Eugene, Ore.
After a brief conversation between Choate, Lewis and the WSU infield, the third-year headman trotted back to the dugout alone.
Lewis was staying in the game.
It took Lewis, the Mountain West Conference's Pitcher of the Year, just three more pitches to prompt Oregon State's Josh Proctor to pop out to right fielder Max Hartman.
Only after Lewis sat down the Beavers 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to log a 3-2 Regional victory for his Cougars over Oregon State did he leave the mound for good.
"Choate and I have a good relationship; we know each other pretty well at this point," Lewis said in the postgame interview. "So he knew I wanted to stay in. I think my pitch count was pretty low and so he trusted me to go get the job done."
The Cougars mustered just five hits, but made them count. Dustin Robinson's eighth-inning double down the right-field line sent second baseman Gavin Roy across home plate for the winning run, and Lewis took care of business from there.
WSU (31-26) will face 15th-ranked Oregon — the overall No. 11 seed in the tournament and the top seed in WSU's pod — at 6 p.m. today in the winners' bracket. The Ducks beat Yale 14-2 in the late game Friday.
OSU will face elimination opposite Yale at 1 p.m. today.
The victory might have been a bit of a shock to the majority Beaver and Duck fans in attendance, who likely anticipated an intrastate matchup in the winners' bracket.
The Cougars shared no such surprise.
"I don't think anyone in our program is shocked," Choate said. "I know there are a lot of other people that are shocked, but I think our program and our players are not shocked. And obviously Nick pitched his butt off, so pretty proud."
Lewis elite on the mound
WSU, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010 after winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament title last Sunday, deployed Lewis, the conference pitcher of the year, to handle the modern college baseball juggernaut known as the Beavers.
Lewis earned his 10th and biggest win of the season with a nine-inning complete game that required just one whiff. He allowed two earned runs on six hits and walked no one, inducing 11 groundouts and 15 flyouts.
"I think it came down to attacking the strike zone with the runners on. Let them get themselves out," Lewis said in a postgame radio interview. "I think I only had one strikeout, so I just had to pound the zone with the three pitches I've got. I knew even if those guys were to score, our offense always puts together good ABs, as you saw. So it was competitive all the way through."
The lefty from Corona, Calif., sat the Beavers down in order three times, including in the game-sealing ninth inning, in which third baseman Ollie Obenour scooped a sharp groundball from the left-field line and chucked it across the diamond to first baseman Ryan Skjonsby for the penultimate out.
Five pitches later, Lewis forced Oregon State catcher Joey Galloway, whose RBI double in the second inning put OSU in front 1-0, to pop out to center fielder Trevor Smith — and just like that, WSU was victorious.
In a true pitchers' duel, OSU ace Ethan Kleinschmit took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, striking out nine before permitting three consecutive base runners, including on an RBI double by USC transfer Matt Priest that drew the Cougs even with OSU 2-2.
Each of the first three hits that Lewis allowed were doubles, including Galloway's second-inning RBI extra-base hit, which put OSU in front 1-0.
From there, Lewis began to cruise, using 11-or-fewer pitches in each of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The Beavers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth off an Easton Talt sacrifice fly.
Otherwise, Lewis took the Beaver bats out of the equation.
Cougars squeeze a few across
The Cougars likely aren't in the winners' bracket without Hartman's ingenuity.
Hartman, a senior outfielder who arrived in Pullman as a freshman in 2023, was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the fourth. He advanced to second after Robinson was also struck by a ball, then caused chaos.
Kleinschmit struck out Skjonsby, but Hartman and Robinson were already in motion.
The pair pulled off a double steal and OSU's Galloway gunned the ball toward third base from behind the plate, but his throw was off the mark and leaked into left field.
Hartman scampered home to tie the game 1-1.
Obenour struck out to strand Robinson at third base, and the Cougars began their tradition of scoring just one run at a time.
After the Cougar bats chased Kleinschmit from the game in the sixth to again tie the contest 2-2, the Beavers brought in Wyatt Queen to mop up the frame, and he did, striking out Obenour to strand a pair.
Queen worked a quick seventh, stranding a runner; however, WSU got to him in the eighth with another string of offense. Hartman singled to left and Priest rocketed the ball to right to set up Robinson's double and put WSU up by one.
"This group of hitters is never out of it," Hartman said. "There's always a way to scratch one across no matter who's on the mound and who we're facing off against."
Choate said he was not surprised that OSU kept Queen, a right-handed reliever with a 2.55 ERA, in the game to face Robinson, a left-handed bat.
"I think when you get to this point of the season, sometimes the matchups get thrown out and you just go with a guy, whoever your guy is," Choate said. "It's easy to sit here and say, 'Hey, we should have done differently,' but from where I'm sitting, I'm glad it turned out the way it did."
OSU turned to reliever Albert Roblez for two perfect innings. Roblez struck out five across the eighth and the ninth to give the Beavers a chance, but Lewis made sure that WSU's three runs would be enough.
Playing spoiler?
WSU's success against OSU wasn't unprecedented. The two teams split a midweek regular-season series 1-1, with OSU crushing the Cougs 18-0 on April 6 and WSU clinging onto a 7-6 victory the next day.
With their ace on the mound and nearly two more months of baseball under their belts, WSU took the victory and queued up another legacy Pac-12 rematch with Oregon, a school that left for the Big Ten three years ago.
Did WSU feel slighted and thus motivated by the national and regional media's focus on a potential OSU-UO matchup for Saturday?
"Honestly, it's more about us. I think we're a different squad than when we played (and OSU) beat us 18-0 on that Monday in our place," Choate said. "That's the thing that we talk about: if we play good baseball, we know we can beat anyone."
WSU 000 101 010—3 5 0
OSU 010 010 000—2 6 1
Lewis and Macleod and Thein (8); Kleinschmit, Queen (6), Roblez (8) and Galloway.W — Lewis (10-2); L — Queen (1-2).
Washington State hits — Hartman 2, Priest 2, Robinson (2B).
Oregon State hits — Singer (2B), Porter (2B), Vazquez (2B), Galloway (2B), Krieg (2B), Haight.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
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Nick Lewis had done an admirable job mowing down the Oregon State Beavers during an NCAA Regional opening round encounter between former Pac-12 foes in a former Pac-12 venue Friday at PK Park in Eugene, Ore.
After a brief conversation between Choate, Lewis and the WSU infield, the third-year headman trotted back to the dugout alone.
Lewis was staying in the game.
It took Lewis, the Mountain West Conference's Pitcher of the Year, just three more pitches to prompt Oregon State's Josh Proctor to pop out to right fielder Max Hartman.
Only after Lewis sat down the Beavers 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to log a 3-2 Regional victory for his Cougars over Oregon State did he leave the mound for good.
"Choate and I have a good relationship; we know each other pretty well at this point," Lewis said in the postgame interview. "So he knew I wanted to stay in. I think my pitch count was pretty low and so he trusted me to go get the job done."
The Cougars mustered just five hits, but made them count. Dustin Robinson's eighth-inning double down the right-field line sent second baseman Gavin Roy across home plate for the winning run, and Lewis took care of business from there.
WSU (31-26) will face 15th-ranked Oregon — the overall No. 11 seed in the tournament and the top seed in WSU's pod — at 6 p.m. today in the winners' bracket. The Ducks beat Yale 14-2 in the late game Friday.
OSU will face elimination opposite Yale at 1 p.m. today.
The victory might have been a bit of a shock to the majority Beaver and Duck fans in attendance, who likely anticipated an intrastate matchup in the winners' bracket.
The Cougars shared no such surprise.
"I don't think anyone in our program is shocked," Choate said. "I know there are a lot of other people that are shocked, but I think our program and our players are not shocked. And obviously Nick pitched his butt off, so pretty proud."
Lewis elite on the mound
WSU, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010 after winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament title last Sunday, deployed Lewis, the conference pitcher of the year, to handle the modern college baseball juggernaut known as the Beavers.
Lewis earned his 10th and biggest win of the season with a nine-inning complete game that required just one whiff. He allowed two earned runs on six hits and walked no one, inducing 11 groundouts and 15 flyouts.
"I think it came down to attacking the strike zone with the runners on. Let them get themselves out," Lewis said in a postgame radio interview. "I think I only had one strikeout, so I just had to pound the zone with the three pitches I've got. I knew even if those guys were to score, our offense always puts together good ABs, as you saw. So it was competitive all the way through."
The lefty from Corona, Calif., sat the Beavers down in order three times, including in the game-sealing ninth inning, in which third baseman Ollie Obenour scooped a sharp groundball from the left-field line and chucked it across the diamond to first baseman Ryan Skjonsby for the penultimate out.
Five pitches later, Lewis forced Oregon State catcher Joey Galloway, whose RBI double in the second inning put OSU in front 1-0, to pop out to center fielder Trevor Smith — and just like that, WSU was victorious.
In a true pitchers' duel, OSU ace Ethan Kleinschmit took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, striking out nine before permitting three consecutive base runners, including on an RBI double by USC transfer Matt Priest that drew the Cougs even with OSU 2-2.
Each of the first three hits that Lewis allowed were doubles, including Galloway's second-inning RBI extra-base hit, which put OSU in front 1-0.
From there, Lewis began to cruise, using 11-or-fewer pitches in each of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The Beavers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth off an Easton Talt sacrifice fly.
Otherwise, Lewis took the Beaver bats out of the equation.
Cougars squeeze a few across
The Cougars likely aren't in the winners' bracket without Hartman's ingenuity.
Hartman, a senior outfielder who arrived in Pullman as a freshman in 2023, was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the fourth. He advanced to second after Robinson was also struck by a ball, then caused chaos.
Kleinschmit struck out Skjonsby, but Hartman and Robinson were already in motion.
The pair pulled off a double steal and OSU's Galloway gunned the ball toward third base from behind the plate, but his throw was off the mark and leaked into left field.
Hartman scampered home to tie the game 1-1.
Obenour struck out to strand Robinson at third base, and the Cougars began their tradition of scoring just one run at a time.
After the Cougar bats chased Kleinschmit from the game in the sixth to again tie the contest 2-2, the Beavers brought in Wyatt Queen to mop up the frame, and he did, striking out Obenour to strand a pair.
Queen worked a quick seventh, stranding a runner; however, WSU got to him in the eighth with another string of offense. Hartman singled to left and Priest rocketed the ball to right to set up Robinson's double and put WSU up by one.
"This group of hitters is never out of it," Hartman said. "There's always a way to scratch one across no matter who's on the mound and who we're facing off against."
Choate said he was not surprised that OSU kept Queen, a right-handed reliever with a 2.55 ERA, in the game to face Robinson, a left-handed bat.
"I think when you get to this point of the season, sometimes the matchups get thrown out and you just go with a guy, whoever your guy is," Choate said. "It's easy to sit here and say, 'Hey, we should have done differently,' but from where I'm sitting, I'm glad it turned out the way it did."
OSU turned to reliever Albert Roblez for two perfect innings. Roblez struck out five across the eighth and the ninth to give the Beavers a chance, but Lewis made sure that WSU's three runs would be enough.
Playing spoiler?
WSU's success against OSU wasn't unprecedented. The two teams split a midweek regular-season series 1-1, with OSU crushing the Cougs 18-0 on April 6 and WSU clinging onto a 7-6 victory the next day.
With their ace on the mound and nearly two more months of baseball under their belts, WSU took the victory and queued up another legacy Pac-12 rematch with Oregon, a school that left for the Big Ten three years ago.
Did WSU feel slighted and thus motivated by the national and regional media's focus on a potential OSU-UO matchup for Saturday?
"Honestly, it's more about us. I think we're a different squad than when we played (and OSU) beat us 18-0 on that Monday in our place," Choate said. "That's the thing that we talk about: if we play good baseball, we know we can beat anyone."
WSU 000 101 010—3 5 0
OSU 010 010 000—2 6 1
Lewis and Macleod and Thein (8); Kleinschmit, Queen (6), Roblez (8) and Galloway.W — Lewis (10-2); L — Queen (1-2).
Washington State hits — Hartman 2, Priest 2, Robinson (2B).
Oregon State hits — Singer (2B), Porter (2B), Vazquez (2B), Galloway (2B), Krieg (2B), Haight.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
