WSU to open Mountain West tournament with quarterfinal matchup against Air Force
May 21—PULLMAN — When he reflects back on this Washington State baseball season, about the way the Cougars have authored such history and made believers out of skeptics, Nathan Choate likes to highlight a couple games. There's WSU's season-opening win over SEC power Alabama. There's the Cougars' up-and-down win over UNLV.
There's their narrow win over San Jose State, also on the road. Then, to wrap up the regular season, WSU took on Air Force in Colorado Springs, where no opponent had won this spring. The Cougars and Falcons squared off for three games.
"And we won two of them," Choate said. That's the good news for WSU, which opens the Mountain West Conference Tournament at 6:05 p. m.
Friday night with a matchup against third-seeded Air Force. It's the first postseason appearance in 16 years for the Cougars, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, a double-elimination style format set for Mesa, Arizona.
To knock off the Falcons and advance to Saturday's semifinals, the Cougars will have to play the way more like the way they did to win the regular-season series' first two games. In those contests, WSU raced to early leads and cruised to victories, including a seven-inning mercy-rule triumph in the second game. First baseman Ryan Skjonsby (all-conference second team) and left fielder Dustin Robinson combined for seven RBI on four hits in that one.