20th ranked WSU baseball looking to stay hot against USF

Mar 15, 2023 - 2:00 PM

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This week, most WSU fans are focused on the postseason. On Tuesday night, WSU men’s basketball opened up NIT play at home against Eastern Washington. This weekend, WSU women’s hoops heads to Pennsylvania to face off with Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. However, alongside all the Tournament excitement, there is another WSU program is playing like they’re postseason bound.

On Wednesday afternoon, the red hot Cougar baseball team will return home to play host to USF. The Cougs are one of the hottest teams in the country. Over the weekend, they completed a series win over Oregon State, taking two out of three from the 15th ranked Beavers in Corvallis. The victories take WSU to 13-2 overall on the season, giving them their best start since 2006. They also rank top two in the Pac-12 Conference in OBP (.416), scoring (8.5 runs per game), stolen bases (19) and strikeouts per 9 innings (11.6). The hot streak was recognized by the voters of the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll who voted WSU as no. 20 in their most recent ranking. It’s the first time WSU has been in the rankings since 2010.

A big reason for WSU’s success so far this year has been their pitching. Over the weekend, that staff was led by reliever Connor Wilford. The sophomore made two appearances in the series against OSU, pitching seven no-hit innings, striking out nine and walking just one batter. Earlier this week the San Clemente native was named both Pac-12 pitcher of the week and one of the national players of the week by Collegiate Baseball.

Now, the Cougs turn their attention to another challenge as San Francisco makes their way to Pullman. The Dons enter the week with an 8-4 record, including a series win over Yale last weekend in the Bay Area. WSU leads the all-time series with USF 5-2 and Wednesday’s matchup will be the first ever meeting in Pullman.

First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m. at Bailey-Brayton Field. You can watch live coverage on the Pac-12 website.

WSU Hosts San Francisco For Wednesday Matchup - Washington State University Athletics
No. 20-ranked Washington State opens a four-game homestand with a Wednesday matchup against San Francisco at Bailey-Brayton Field. First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m.

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