Simpson's Third HR In Last Three Games Puts Exclamation Point On Win Over Portland

The sun peeked through a sea of light clouds as the Huskies took the field at Joe Etzel Field down in Portland tonight. It was their second meeting with the Pilots edging out a 5-4 victory exactly two weeks ago.

With Redshirt Sophomore Stu Flesland III getting the start on the mound, it was a pretty clean game through the first three innings with only a UW walk and a Portland hit batter ever reaching base. That would, however, change.

Top of 4
Johnny Tincher led off the fourth earning himself a full-count walk.  He would later steal second to pad his stats as it didn't matter given what would happen next. Colby Morales stepped into the batters box and launched a home run to left center giving the Dawgs a 2-0 lead.

Top of 5
Four straight balls put Cam Clayton on first to start the inning. Josh Urps followed singling through the right side. McKay Barney came up next and smacked a double to left field scoring Clayton to make it a 3-0 ballgame.

Top of 6
AJ Guerrero drove a one-out single to left field. Snyder followed with a seeing-eye ground ball past the second baseman. Next, Clayton put one in play to third. He was thrown out, but was able to move the two runners along. Next, Jake Leitgeb clutched up with two outs and singled scoring both Snyder and Guerrero to make the score 5-0.

Top of 8
Guerrero lead off with a single to second base and was replaced on the bag by Cole Miller who stole second base. Snyder singled down the right field line advancing Miller to third. Two batters later, Leitgeb lifted one to shallows center field. The throw to the plate came in plenty of time, but a one-hopper proved to a challenge for the catcher and it got by. Miller hesitated and then broke for the plate sliding in safe for the 6-0 Husky lead.

Bottom of 8
A walk to the leadoff batter soon found himself on second when the next batter was hit by a pitch. This set the stage for the next batter who doubled to right center putting two on the board for the Pilots. He would advance to third on a fly out to right field and ultimately score as well on a sacrifice fly to right. Pilots had quickly cut the score in half now trailing 6-3.

Top of 9
Having homered in the previous two games, Will Simpson realized this was probably his last chance of the day to officially create a streak. So what did he do? He laid into a 1-0 pitch and drove it over the left field fence. Dawgs up 7-0!

Bottom of 9
Stefan Raeth, who came in for the final out of the eight, stayed on and put the Pilots down in order in the bottom of the ninth to secure the Washington victory.

Stu Flesland III earned the win pitching 3.1 innings, putting up a string of zeroes along with five strikeouts.

The 14-10 Huskies return to Pac-12 play this Friday welcoming the 18-7 Arizona Wildcats to Husky Ballpark for a three-game series.