May 25, 2008

Box Score

PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State scored six times over the last two innings, but fell a run short, losing 8-7 to USC in Pacific-10 Conference baseball at Bailey-Brayton Field, Sunday.

Trailing 8-1, Washington State (30-26, 8-16 Pac-10) picked up runs in the eighth on a Paul Gran sacrifice fly, a Jim Murphy fielder's choice and a double by Jared Prince to pull within 8-4.

In the ninth, senior Simi Reynolds led off with his first home run of the season in his final at bat as a Cougar to make it 8-5. Shea Vucinich followed with an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error by USC (28-28, 11-13 Pac-10) third baseman Billy Pinkerton. Travis Coulter collected his fourth hit of the day with an infield single to put runners at the corners.

After Scott Suttmeier popped out, Gran drilled a two-run double in the right-centerfield gap to cut the Trojans' lead to 8-7. Murphy was intentionally walked and Michael Weber drew a four-pitch free pass to load the bases. However, Brad Boxberger closed out his third save by inducing Prince to hit into a game-ending double play. The loss was the fifth one-run defeat in conference play for the Cougars this season.

'It was a season of a lot of near misses and today was no exception,' WSU Head Coach Donnie Marbut said.

USC scored five runs in the third inning off Chad Arnold (2-7) and added three in the fifth off reliever Andrew Davis to lead 8-0. Washington State tallied its only run off Kevin Couture (6-2) in the sixth when Suttmeier singled, moved to third on a Gran single, and scored when Murphy grounded into a double play.

USC 8, Washington State 7----------------------------------------------------------------------USC................. 005 030 000  -  8 11  1      (28-28, 11-13 Pac-10)Washington State.... 000 001 033  -  7 14  0      (30-26, 8-16 Pac-10)----------------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers: USC - Couture; Cabral(8); Dedeaux(8); Encinas(8); Boxberger(9). Washington State -Arnold, Chad; Davis, Andrew(3); Kost, Steve(5); Tribbett, Tommy(6); Humes, Ross(8);Harvey, Seth(9).Win-Couture(6-2)  Save-Boxberger(3)  Loss-Arnold, Chad(2-7)  T-3:07  A-576HR USC - Green (9).HR WSU - Reynolds, Simi (1).Game notes:Dedeaux faced 2 batters in the 8th.Encinas faced 2 batters in the 9th.