Sept. 6, 2007
PULLMAN, Wash. - The Washington State University baseball team will play 20 games in 2008 against teams which made the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Cougar Head Coach Donnie Marbut announced Thursday.
Of the 20 games, 13 of them will take place in Pullman, including the season-opening three-game series with Creighton (Feb. 22-24), a four-game set against Kent State (March 7-9) and Pacific-10 series against 2007 College World Series participant Arizona State (April 11-13) and two-time defending national champion Oregon State (May 3-5). Other postseason teams on the schedule are Wichita State (March 12 in Wichita), Arizona (April 18-20 in Tucson) and UCLA (May 16-18 in Los Angels). The Cougars are coming off a 28-26 mark, their second straight winning season under Marbut. WSU's 64 wins in the last two campaigns are the most in consecutive years since 1993-94 (69).
In addition, Washington State hosts Horizon League member Wright State (Feb. 29-March 2) for three games, plays West Conference foe Gonzaga four times (March 25 and April 22 in Pullman, April 8 and 15 in Spokane), and travels to Mountain West Conference opponent BYU for a two-game series (May 6-7). All three of those schools were in the championship round of their respective conferences and within a step of postseason in 2007.
"The strength of our nonconference schedule is as good as it has been in recent memory," Marbut said. "Our fans will have the opportunity to see us play at home against some teams that were in the postseason a year ago. Add in the quality of teams in the Pac-10 and we have a very solid schedule. I am excited about the challenges for our program in the upcoming season."
The remainder of the nonconference schedule consists of two games at UNLV (Feb. 26-27), a contest at Kansas State (March 11), a four-game series at Oklahoma (March 14-16), a game at Santa Clara (March 31), a four-game set at home against UC Davis (April 4-6) and a three-game series in Pullman against San Jose State (April 25-27).
Other Pac-10 series include California (March 20-22) and USC (May 23-25) at home and Stanford (March 28-30) and Washington (May 9-11) on the road.
