Cougars Open Tour in Dominican Republic

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic – Ector Sano’s three-run home run in the sixth lifted the Dominican Republic Navy to a 4-2 victory over Washington State in exhibition baseball, Sunday.

Sano’s blast to left came off Cougar reliever and losing pitcher Jacob Schroeder to cap a four-run rally that erased a 2-0 deficit. Jesse Houser, the third of six Washington State hurlers, yielded a walk and a hit-run-single to put runners at the corners before giving way to Schroeder with one out in the sixth.

Schroeder recorded the second out on a sacrifice fly that cut the Cougars’ lead in half. Washington State had a chance to get out of the inning, but an error by freshman shortstop Jack Strunc kept the rally alive. Sano made the miscue hurt to give his team, the Squad Forces Baseball Academy, the lead.

The Cougars took advantage of some poor defense by Squad Forces in the fifth inning to push across the first runs of the day. Squad Forces committed two of its five errors in the game to put two runners on with two outs. Senior second baseman Ian Sagdal delivered a two-run triple to deep right-center field.

Washington State outhit the Navy 5-3 and received strong outings from senior starter Sean Hartnett and freshman Scott Sunitsch. Hartnett retired all six men he faced, including three strikeouts. Sunitsch notched a strikeout in 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball. Freshman Ryan Walker pitched the final two innings for the Cougars, retiring all-five men he faced while fanning two.

The Cougars continues its foreign tour, Monday at 11 a.m. Atlantic Time/7 a.m. Pacific. Washington State will face the Kansas City Royals’ Academy team. Live stats and updates about the trip can be found on wsucougars.com.

NOTE

Seattle Mariners’ closer Fernando Rodney threw out the ceremonial first pitch.