Washington State Baseball Wins Mountain West, Earns NCAA Tournament Bid
The Washington State Cougars baseball team is officially headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010 after defeating San Diego State 14-4 Sunday afternoon to win the Mountain West Championship. The Cougars earned the conference’s automatic bid and completed one of the program’s biggest turnarounds in recent history.
The Cougars entered their winner take all game with a 29-26 overall record and finished second in the Mountain West standings with a 15-9 conference record, trailing only San Diego State in the standings. After finishing 18-36 a season ago, Washington State returned much of the same roster and turned that experience into a postseason run that few expected.
Washington State opened the conference tournament Friday night with a 5-1 win over Air Force to advance to the semifinals. On Saturday, the Cougars faced top-seeded San Diego State and pulled off a 14-9 upset to move into the championship game undefeated.
San Diego State stayed alive later that day by defeating Air Force 11-8 in an elimination game, setting up a rematch with Washington State on Sunday. Because the Cougars had not yet lost in the double-elimination tournament, the Aztecs needed to beat Washington State twice to claim the championship and NCAA Tournament berth.
