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Washington State
Trojans Drop Series Finale at Washington State
April 24, 2016 | Baseball
PULLMAN, Wash. – The Trojans dropped the series finale at Washington State, 9-2 on Sunday afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field.
The Trojans (18-20, 7-8 Pac-12) hit a snag in game three of the series, as the Cougars (13-23, 6-12 Pac-12) scored nine runs on 14 hits, with seven of those being infield singles.
The Cougars touched up starter Mitch Hart (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS), who was suffering from a bout of food poisoning for five runs on seven hits through three innings of work. Two infield singles in the first came around to score and then a three-run home run in the second by Shane Matheny gave the Cougars a 5-0 lead.
The Trojans got on the board in the fourth innings on an RBI double by Timmy Robinson (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View HS) to make it a 5-1 ballgame.
Reliever Brent Wheatley (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) entered in relief of Hart in the fourth and gave up one run to make it 6-1 Cougars. He last two innings for the Trojans, walking two and striking out three.
Cougar starter Damon Jones went three-complete, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts before being lifted with runners on the corners, nobody out and one run scored in the fourth for reliever Scotty Sunitsch. Sunitsch was able to get a strikeout and a 6-3 double play to end what could have been a big inning for the Trojans.
Sunitsch then shut down the Trojans from there, putting up zeroes in the next four frames, as the Cougars added three more runs of their own in the seventh to make it a 9-1 deficit.
In the ninth inning, Sunitsch struggled to find the zone, giving up a solo opposite field home run to AJ Ramirez (Phoenix, Ariz./Bakersfield Christian HS) to make it a 9-2, and then walking back-to-back Trojans before being lifted for Trenton Dupre. Dupre closed out the ninth to end the game and the potential Trojan rally.
Starter Hart took the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year, while Sunitsch earned the win for the Cougars to improve to 3-0.
The Trojans will return home to Dedeaux Field and start a four-game homestand on Tuesday as they host UC Irvine at 6 p.m. PT.
