{"id":197782,"date":"2026-02-28T07:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197782\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T07:03:08","slug":"cougars-split-two-games-beat-long-beach-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197782\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Split Two Games, Beat Long Beach State"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, Calif. (February 27, 2026) \u2013 Washington State posted a 10-4 victory over Long Beach State at Blair Field Friday evening. The Cougars bounced back after dropping a 5-4 decision to BYU earlier in the day with Brigham Young winning it with a walkoff RBI-double in the ninth inning.
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\nIn the opener against BYU, freshman Mason Pirello<\/a> collected three hits including the game-tying two-run single in the eighth inning and starter Nick Lewis<\/a> worked into the sixth inning but BYU used a two-out walkoff RBI-double to take the opening game.
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\nIn game two against Long Beach State, freshman leadoff hitter Trevor Smith<\/a> collected three hits with four RBI, doubled and tripled while senior shortstop Gavin Roy<\/a> added two hits and two RBI while senior catcher Noah Thein<\/a> scored three runs and drove in another. Five Cougar pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts and held the Dirtbags to just one run over the final six innings.
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\nWSU erased a 3-0 deficit with four runs in the fourth and later scored twice in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings.
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\nKEY MOMENTS AGAINST BYU
\nSmith set the table early, pulling a double just inside the third base bag and down the left field line before coming home on batter later on Max Hartman’s<\/a> RBI-infield single to first base. In the second, Ryan Skjonsby<\/a> punched a one-out single the other way to left field, moved to second on a balk and Gigu\u00e8re’s rocketed a double to left to score Skjonsby for a 2-0 lead.
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\nBYU used a leadoff walk and two-run homer to left-centerfield to tie the game at two in the second inning. WSU put two runners on the top of the sixth after a Hartman walk and Mason Pirello<\/a> single but BYU ended the threat with a fly out and groundout.
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\nLewis settled in and fired scoreless third, fourth and fifth innings before BYU rallied in the sixth inning. Brigham Young loaded the bases with an infield single and pair of walks before a one-out two-run single through the left side gave BYU a 4-2 lead.
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\nWSU stranded a pair of runners in the sixth and left a runner at third in the seventh before Hartman and Dustin Robinson<\/a> both walked to start the eighth and Pirello muscled the game-tying two-run single into left-centerfield. WSU left the bases loaded after Pirello tied it in eighth and put two runners run on in the ninth but BYU kept it tied with an inning-ending groundout.
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\nIn the bottom of the ninth, the first two BYU hitters were retired before a single to right field and the next hitter pulled a double down the left field line and the runner from first raced around for the game-winner.
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\nINSIDE THE WSU-BYU BOX SCORE
\nAlexandre Gigu\u00e8re made hist 1st career start, started at catcher
\nMason Pirello<\/a> made his 1st career start, started at DH
\nGigu\u00e8re’s 1st career hit was the 2nd inning double
\nWSU is 26-21 all-time against BYU
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\nKEY MOMENTS AGAINST LONG BEACH STATE
\nWSU loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning but were held off the board after a lineout, strikeout and groundout. LBSU loaded the bases in the third inning before scoring a run on a bases-loaded walk and took a 3-0 lead with a two-run single.
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\nIn the fourth, the Cougars loaded the bases and Noah Thein<\/a> brough a run home after he was hit in the foot and Roy followed with a two-run single past diving LBSU shortstop and back up the middle to tie the game at 3-3. Smith bunted both runners up a base and Kyler Northrop<\/a> gave WSU a 4-3 lead with an RBI-groundout to shortstop.
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\nIn the sixth, Thein and Roy each worked one-out walks before Smith hammered a 3-2 pitch down the right field line for a two-run double and a 6-3 Cougar lead. Rodriguez was impressive out of the bullpen, striking out two in a scoreless fifth and posting a scoreless sixth inning.
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\nThe Cougars pushed the lead to 8-3 with two more runs in the eighth on Smith’s hustle RBI-triple down the right field line and he came home on a wild pitch.
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\nWSU added two more in the ninth inning on RBI-singles from Roy and Smith.
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\nINSIDE THE WSU-LBSU BOX SCORE
\nGavin Derr<\/a> started and worked into 3rd inning, striking out 3
\nGriffin Smith<\/a> worked a scoreless 7th inning with 2 strikeouts
\nRodriguez posted 2 scoreless innings with 2 K’s, earned first career win
\nScott Rienguette<\/a> struck out 3 while working the final 2 innings
\nWSU improved to 7-12 all-time against Long Beach State
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\nNEXT UP
\nWSU will have Saturday off before closing the 10-day, eight-game road trip Sunday at Long Beach State at 1:05 p.m.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. (February 27, 2026) \u2013 Washington State posted a 10-4 victory over Long Beach State at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-197782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}