University of Washington
Western Kentucky (NCAA Regional)
UW Beats WKU, 4-1, To Advance To Sunday
June 05, 2004 | Baseball
June 5, 2004
OXFORD, Miss. - The Washington baseball team, behind a strong outing from starter Matt Kasser and home runs from Kyle Larsen and Aaron Hathaway, advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Oxford Regional Saturday night, beating Western Kentucky, 4-1, in an elimination game at Swayze Field.
Sunday, the Huskies (39-19-1) will have to beat Tulane twice to advance to the Super Regionals while the Green Wave needs to win only one game to win the regional. Friday, Tulane beat the UW, 3-2, in the regional opener. The Green Wave advanced to the championship game thanks to a 7-0 win over WKU earlier Saturday.
Earlier Saturday, the Huskies eliminated top seed and host Ole Miss in a loser-out game as freshman Kyle Parker threw a complete-game in a 7-2 UW victory.
Kasser (4-0), a sophomore from Issaquah, threw only 90 pitches and gave up one run on four hits over seven and two-thirds innings, tying his longest career outing. He walked three and struck out five for the win.
Larsen, the UW first baseman, went 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and three runs batted in and Hathaway, the Huskies' junior catcher, was 3-for-4 with a solo home run and a triple.
Both teams struggled with the bats through the early innings. Heading into the fifth, the two clubs had managed only a single each. Hathaway, however, finally broke the scoreless tie when he led off the fifth with his eighth home run of the season to give the UW a 1-0 lead.
Hilltoppers starter Curtis Morrison, who had allowed only two hits and the one run over the first five innings, was nonetheless relieved by Greg Durr to begin the sixth. Durr was greeted by a leadoff single from Zach Clem followed by Larsen's 11th home run of the year, increasing the Husky lead to 3-0.
In the seventh, Western Kentucky got its first runner to third base on singles from Matt Gunning and Dominic Rio. Kasser got out of trouble, however, getting a pop to third from Matt Johnston before striking out Antone Towns to end the seventh.
In the eighth, the Huskies tacked on another as Clem was hit by a pitch and scored on a double from Larsen.
In the bottom of the eighth, WKU got a walk and a single and runners on the corner once again, this time with two outs. Senior lefty Trent Baysinger came on in place of Kasser to face Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Matt Gunner. Baysinger surrendered an RBI single to Gunning, but got Cary Page to ground out to end the inning with the UW on top, 4-1.
Baysinger gave up a single, but got the first two outs in the ninth before giving way to closer Will Fenton. Fenton gave up an infield single to put runners at the corners, but got Jordan Newton to fly to center the end the game and earn his 10th save.
The Huskies' game Sunday vs. Tulane gets underway at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. If the Huskies win, the second game will follow about 45 minutes afterward. All games will air live on KKNW AM-1150.
LINESCORE NCAA Oxford Regional #14 Washington 4, Western Kentucky 1 Washington 000 012 010 -- 4 7 0 Western Kentucky 000 000 010 -- 1 7 1 Matt Kasser, Trent Baysinger (8), Will Fenton (9) and Aaron Hathaway. Curtis Morrison, Greg Durr (6), Adam Prida (8), Kenny Griffin (9) and Jordan Newton. W - Kasser (4-0). L - Morrison (2- 5). Sv - Fenton (10). 2B - UW, Kyle Larsen. 3B - UW, Hathaway. HR - UW, Hathaway (8), Larsen (11). T - 2:20. A - 3,302. Records: UW 39-19-1, WKU 35-28.
