Baseball Cougars drop slugfest vs UNLV in Las Vegan
From WSU
Sports Info
LAS VEGAS
(March 13, 2019) – Washington State dropped a slugfest with UNLV 12-7 on a
windy Wednesday afternoon at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.
The
Cougars recorded 11 hits and received home runs by Dillon Plew and Tyson
Guerrero. Plew homered for the second straight day while Danny Sinatro, Collin
Montez and Koby Blunt each recorded two-hit games. UNLV collected 13 hits and
took advantage of 10 walks.
In the
second, the Cougars struck first as Collin Montez beat out an infield single to
second base and Alvarez followed with an opposite-field double down the right
field line. Garrett Gouldsmith followed with an RBI-groundout to shortstop to
score Montez.
In the
bottom of the inning, the Rebels used three hits, a hit-by-pitch and a Cougar
error to push three runs across for a 3-1 advantage.
In the
fourth, Gouldsmith singled back up the middle and Tyson Guerrero walked and
both came home as Plew hammered a 2-2 pitch deep over the right field wall for
a three-run homer and a 4-3 Cougar lead.
In the
fifth, UNLV used three hits, a pair of walks, a wild pitch and a balk to push
three runs across and take a 6-4 lead.
In the
sixth, Guerrero made it a one-run game in the sixth with a solo homer down the
right field line for his first career home run. UNLV pushed two runs across in
the sixth and three more in the seventh to open up an 11-6 advantage.
In the
eighth, Sintaro singled into centerfield to score Blunt to make it a 11-7 game.
INSIDE THE
BOX SCORE
Dillon
Plew walked in the 3rd, has reached base in all 16 games in 2019 and 19
straight dating back to last season
Plew
homered for the 2nd straight game
Danny
Sinatro reached on a bunt single in the 3rd, has reach base in 14 games
Newstrom
set career highs with 3 innings and 3 strikeouts
Tyson
Guerrero hit his 1st career home run
Koby Blunt
recorded his 1st career multiple-hit game
Davis
Baillie struck out the only batter he faced to end the 8th
NEXT UP: The
Cougars continue their road trip with a three-game series at No. 9 Arizona
State to open Pac-12 Conference play.
::::::::::::::
Cougar men
basketball aiming to take advantage of Las Vegas reset
Sitting on
a five-game losing streak, WSU opens Pac-12 tourney vs. Ducks
By Colton Clark, Lewiston Trib
Tonight,
Washington State coach Ernie Kent seeks to brush aside the strains of late in
Sin City, against a familiar Oregon opponent.
He sees
the Pac-12 tournament as proving grounds. Can the Cougars revert to a commendable
nature — as seen in their road sweep of the Arizonas — or will they again be
condemnable, as they were early and recently in league play?
“Everybody
gets to reset when they go to Vegas,” the fifth-year boss said after WSU’s loss
to Oregon State last week.
A quick
reboot is imperative if 11th-seeded Wazzu and all-leaguers Robert Franks and CJ
Elleby want to turn some heads when they square off with resurgent No. 6 Oregon
at 8:30 tonight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, broadcast on Pac-12 Network.
It’s an
exact replica of the tournament’s tilt last season — the Ducks topped WSU in
overtime in the first round.
Like in
2018, the winner gets third-seeded Utah.
But in
contrast to then, the Cougs enter on a five-game skid, and haven’t beaten — or
nearly beaten — the Ducks in 2018-19. They did that near the end of last year’s
regular season.
In fact,
WSU (11-20, 4-14 Pac-12) is allowing roughly 85 points per outing over the past
five, a mark far worse than its average, or the average of any other Pac-12
troupe, for that matter.
The icy
streak includes a 48-point loss to middling Stanford — WSU’s worst rout of the
Kent era — and a handling to cellar-dwelling (but apparently surging) Cal.
There’s
been a lot of bad over the past two weeks.
There’s
been a lot of missed defensive assignments — switching on ball screens, for
instance — a lot of hasty and ill-advised takes; a lot (a lot) of turnovers and
a lot of plain disorder in play, which Kent attributes to a litany of untimely
concussions, which have sidelined key contributors Jeff Pollard and Viont’e
Daniels, among others.
Kent noted
a lapse in cohesion and lagging perimeter presence as injury-bug outcomes, but
the full crew should be healthy tonight.
It’s been
nasty, but not entirely; there’s been some good over what’s appeared as only a
dreadful period.
There’s
been some leads, albeit blown ones. In the last two against UO and Oregon
State, the Cougars started hot, exhibiting offensive flashes reminiscent of the
team at its best.
WSU led
the Ducks until about 13 minutes passed — when it started committing
gift-wrapped turnovers — and owned a 12-point edge on OSU — until it sputtered
defensively and started fumbling the rock like it was a scorching potato.
Yet for
Kent, tonight’s about sweeping away the many blunders, and zeroing in on
positive tidbits, enough so to raise the Cougars back to the all-around
proficiency of early February in time to upend his former employer, Oregon
(19-12, 10-8).
“There’s
spurts in the season where it felt like we were the best team in the
conference,” Kent said. “We saw spurts of it going into that (Arizona) weekend
and we’ve seen spurts coming out.”
WSU needs
stalwart Pac-12 scoring leader (22.1 ppg) and first-teamer Franks — who just
set a new career-high against OSU with 37 points — to efficiently spearhead the
charge, as he’s done from inside and (mostly) afar.
It’ll need
a boost too from all-freshman forward Elleby, who recently broke Steve
Puidokas’ longstanding WSU rookie scoring record.
It’ll
again need its hot shooting, stability, revamped defense, plus a knack for
closing out games.
And it’ll
especially need to employ length in limiting revived UO, which held its last
four opponents to under 62 points (51.5 ppg allowed) — the first time it’s done
so in 33 years — and comfortably won each matchup, including one over league
champion Washington.
It owes to
coach Dana Altman’s tinkering into a “big” lineup — the Ducks start four who
stand 6-foot-9 or taller.
“They’re
long. Long and athletic,” Kent said. “They rebound the ball extremely well and
can score inside extremely well.”
A flipped
script equals WSU’s first tournament win in 10 years. Failure to do so — well,
that’d be more of the same.
NOTES —
That last Cougar win in the Pac-12/10 tournament came on March 11, 2009, as
Tony Bennett’s WSU defeated Kent’s Ducks, 62-40. ... On Tuesday, Franks became
the first Cougar since Brock Motum in 2013 to be named to the U.S. Basketball
Writers Association All-District IX team. The district team includes 11 players
from teams in Washington, California, Oregon, Hawaii, Arizona and Alaska.
:::
WSU men basketball
Pac-12
Tournament: 11th seed WSU eyes first conference tournament win in a decade vs.
6th seed Oregon
UPDATED:
Tue., March 12, 2019, 6:35 p.m.
By Theo Lawson
Lewiston Trib
LAS VEGAS
– When all the seeding chaos finally settled late Saturday night, and Pac-12
Tournament sorted out who’d play who in Wednesday’s first-round games at
T-Mobile Arena, the conference spit out a familiar matchup for the teams positioned
in sixth and 11th places.
Precisely
371 days after Oregon and Washington State collided in the 2018 Pac-12
Tournament – seeded sixth and 11th, respectively, the Ducks (19-12) and Cougars
(11-20) will meet again in the Sin City nightcap, each playing to stay alive at
8:30 p.m. Wednesday (Pac-12 Networks).
Neither
team will be able to say they lack scouting material on the other leading up to
another high-stakes game on the Strip. There’s been plenty of time for the
Ducks to acclimate to the Cougars, and vice versa, as the Northwest rivals get
ready to face each other for the sixth time in two years. Oregon defeated WSU
in overtime to open last year’s tournament.
“Both of
us have got to know each other extremely well, that’s for sure,” WSU coach
Ernie Kent said.
Kent, of
course, has a pretty good grasp on the Ducks as the one who led the early days
of their basketball renaissance. While current Oregon coach Dana Altman guided
the Ducks to their highest point – a 2017 Final Four berth – and many milestones
before that, Kent built them back into a winner two decades prior, leading the
program to five NCAA Tournaments and two Elite Eights in his 13 years at
Oregon’s helm.
But
beating the program Kent had a hand in constructing has been another problem,
something that was driven home again last Wednesday when Oregon cruised by WSU
in Pullman 72-61 to complete a season sweep. The Cougars are 2-7 against the
Ducks since Kent took over in 2014-15 and haven’t won a game at the Pac-12/10
Tournament in a decade, since Tony Bennett’s 2008-09 WSU team took down an
Oregon team coached by Kent.
Quizzed
about the pros and cons of playing the same team so often – and twice in the
same week – Kent said, “It’s good because our prep is already in and everything
else, and we can just clean up. The other side of it is we lost to them at
their place and lost to them at home.”
Each of
the four teams that have played the Ducks in the past 13 days have walked off
the court with a loss – including the Pac-12’s No. 1 seed, Washington, which
bowed to Oregon 55-47 in Seattle on Saturday night.
Kent
attributes Oregon’s recent surge to a shift in the Ducks’ starting lineup.
Altman recently added freshman Francis Okoro to the fold, bringing to four the
number of athletic 6-foot-9 forwards the Ducks have in their starting five.
The
Cougars will likely counter with a starting lineup of 6-9 Robert Franks, 6-9
Jeff Pollard, 6-6 CJ Elleby, 6-5 Marvin Cannon and 5-11 Ahmed Ali.
“That has
helped them defensively, where they can just kind of switch all over the floor
and guard you, so it forces you to play smarter offensively,” Kent said. “They
can do such a better job defensively because of that length on the floor.”
Turnovers
have been crippling for the Cougars amid a five-game losing streak. More than
that, the manner in which their opponents have capitalized on those turnovers.
Over the past five games, WSU has committed 80 turnovers, leading to 111
opponent points.
Oregon
turned 17 WSU turnovers into 20 points when the teams met a week ago at Beasley
Coliseum. It was the same story when the teams played in Eugene earlier this
season – the Cougars turning it over 17 times, the Ducks capitalizing with 21
points.
In the
first meeting, WSU led 39-35 at halftime before being outscored 43-19 in the second
half.
“I think
it’s a good matchup,” said Franks, the Pac-12’s leading scorer and recent
all-conference first-team selection. “We played them really well in Eugene and
we fought back in Pullman, so it’s a team that’s very beatable. We’ve just got
to come with the right mindset and game plan.”
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