Huskies And Titans Set For Super Regional Clash

Friday, June 8

Fullerton, CA

11:00 AM

University of Washington

Cal State Fullerton

June 07, 2018 | Baseball

NCAA Super Regional Central UW release - SUPER REGIONAL

By: Brian Tom

Goodwin Field (3,500), Fullerton, Calif.
Fri., June 8: 11:00 a.m. (ESPN2)
Sat., June 9: 3:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Sun., June 10: 6:00 p.m. (ESPNU)

VIDEO/TV: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
LIVE STATS: Game 1

FULLERTON, Calif. - The dream season for the Washington Huskies (33-23) continues this weekend as the Diamond Dawgs head to Fullerton, Calif., to participate in the school's first-ever NCAA Super Regional after coming out of the NCAA Conway Region a perfect 3-0. They will face Cal State Fullerton (34-23) who, like the Huskies, escaped as a No. 3 seed in the Stanford Regional.

While the Huskies will be in uncharted post-season territory, they ride into Orange County red hot and are 8-1 over their last nine games, winners of 10 of 12 and 12 of 15. Their opponents are old pros when it comes to Super Regionals as the Titans will be competing in their 14th Super Regional (second most in NCAA behind 19 of Florida State) and trying to qualify for their 19th College World Series.

The Huskies and Titans will play Friday (11:00 a.m.), Saturday (3:30 p.m.) and if necessary, on Sunday (6:00 p.m.). All games this week will be carried live on ESPN2 on Friday and ESPNU on Saturday and Sunday with Mark Neely and Wes Clements calling the action.

Constant updates are also available via Twitter: @UW_Baseball and fans can find all links at GoHuskies.com.

LAST WEEK
The Huskies ran the table at the NCAA Conway Regional, opening with a 7-1 win over UConn, followed by an 11-6 win over host Coastal Carolina and capping the tourney with a 9-6 win over UConn again. In game one, Joe Wainhouse broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with a home run and the Huskies put the game away with five runs in the eighth. Joe DeMers allowed a first inning run, but allowed just four hits over the next seven innings to earn the win. Against the host Chanticleers, UW had a six-run second inning, capped by a Nick Kahle grand slam home run, and added two runs in the sixth and seventh innings to blow open a 7-6 advantage and advance to the winner's bracket. They faced UConn for the right to move on and UConn jumped ahead 6-1 in the top of the third before UW scored five in the third to tie things up. Wainhouse, who was the MVP of the Regional, bashed his third home run of the weekend, to highlight the inning. AJ Graffanino broke a 6-6 tie in the 8th inning with a base-loaded, bases-clearing double that earned him the post-game Gatorade shower.

SERIES HISTORY VS. CAL STATE FULLERTON
Washington and Cal State Fullerton have faced each other in three different series, with the Titans winning all eight games. They first met when the Huskies kicked off their 1987 season on the road against the Titans. Interestingly, while it was the Huskies first games of the season, Fullerton entered the two-game series with a 17-9 record. The Titans won the opening games 15-7 and 6-1. The next time the teams met was in 2010, the first year of Lindsay Meggs' tenure at UW. Fullerton swept that series in Seattle by a combined 21 runs, March 19-21. The Huskies made a return trip to Fullerton the next season, and the results were much the same, with the Titans winning by a combined 18 runs.

TEAM NOTES:
• Finally Ranked: It may have taken until June, but the Huskies have finally cracked the top-25 in the national polls. They are 13th in the Collegiate Baseball rankings and 17th in NCBWA polls released earlier this week.
• Pac-12 Recognition: Five Huskies earned All-Pac-12 honors, the most by UW since six earned honors in 1998. Joe DeMers (P), Alex Hardy (P), Levi Jordan (INF), Nick Kahle (C) and Joe Wainhouse (DH) were all named first team while Mason Cerrillo (OF) and Jordan Jones (P) earned honorable mention recognition.
• Draft Dawgs: AJ Graffanino (8th, Braves) and Willie MacIver (9th, Colorado) heard their names called for the MLB Draft on day two and on Wednesday, Joe DeMers (11th, A's) and Levi Jordan (29th, Cubs) heard their names called. Now, 33 Huskies have been drafted under Lindsay Meggs, since 2010. A pair of UW signees also heard their names called: Jayson Schroeder (2nd, Astros), Alex Guerrero (18th, Yankees) and David Rhodes (40th, Mariners).
• The Turnaround: After losing to Texas Rio Grande Valley on April 23 the Huskies were 18-18 overall and the post-season looked like a long shot. Since then, they have went 15-5 and won five-consecutive Pac-12 series and recorded a sweep of the Conway Regional.
• HR Frenzy: Joe Wainhouse has hit a home run in each of the last nine weekend series, including the Regional, and has 11 home runs in the last 15 games. For perspective, Fullerton has 12 home runs on the season. As a team the Huskies launched 21 home runs in May and June after having 15 total home runs in the first 39 games.
• Jordan Peaking Again: Senior Levi Jordan is on a current seven-game hit streak (17x31, .548, 10 RBI, 2 HR) to raise his avg from .258 to .300. On March 11, he sprained his ankle stepping into the dugout after hitting a home run. At that time, he had a .358 batting average, but immediately went on an 0-for-24 slump after to dip below .300. He is now at .300 for the first time since March 18.
• April Showers Bring Lots Of Hits: The month of May was particularly kind to the Huskies' bats, and has continued into June. UW was batting .255 when April but hit .300 in May to raise the team average up to .267. UW had a 10-4 record and averaged 6.6 runs per game in May. They had been averaging 4.2 runs per contest prior to May. They've kept it up in June and hit .366 in the Regional up to a season high .273 on the year.
• More May Hotness: Speaking of Wainhouse, he hit .356 (21x59) with 8 HR, 22 RBI and a .814 slugging percentage in May. Levi Jordan also scorched, hitting .397 (23x58) with 4 HR and 13 RBI, and is a career .374 (55x147) hitter for May. Husky starters Lucas Knowles (2-1, 3.09), Joe DeMers (3-0, 3.31) and Jordan Jones (2-0, 4.05) combined to go 7-1 in the month.
• Milestones For Meggs: UW ninth-year head coach Lindsay Meggs has hit several milestones during the year. In the Regional clinching win over UConn, it marked Meggs' 500th game as the Huskies head coach. Other noteworthy milestones in 2018 he has reached are he won his 850th career game on March 2 vs. Michigan State and coached in his 1,400th game overall April 13 vs. Oregon.
• DeMers' Perfect-O: Junior Joe DeMers threw a 84-pitch perfect game Feb. 24 against UC Riverside. DeMers struck out a career-high tying nine batters, reached a three-ball count just once and threw over 10 pitches three times with a high of 13. It was the first perfect game by a UW pitcher and fifth ever in Pac-12 history. It was the ninth no hitter in Washington history, the first since Tim Lincecum and Nick Hagadone threw a combined no-no in 2006 vs. Santa Clara.
• DeMers Earns Major League Honor: Joe DeMers along with Husky softball player Gabbie Plain threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Seattle Mariners game on Wednesday, May 2. The two were honored for throwing perfect games earlier this season. Their pitches were caught by Felix Hernandez, who threw a perfect game Aug. 12, 2012.
• DeMers Shutout Note: Joe DeMers has thrown two shutouts this year. The only Huskies over the last 20 years to throw a pair of shutouts in the same year are Jacob Clem (2011), Tim Lincecum (2006) and Shawn Kohn (2001). John Martin (1980) is the last Husky to throw three shutouts in the same season.
• Not Your Typical Joe: Joe Wainhouse is the first player in Lindsay Meggs' nine years at Washington to both pitch and hit. He made his first two appearances of 2018 on the mound vs. Illinois State, coming in for late relief while also serving as the designated hitter. The Huskies last true two-way player was Brian Pearl in 2009.

PLAYERS IN THE RANKINGS:
• Joe Wainhouse led the Conference in Pac-12 games with 37 runs batted in and was second with 12 home runs. He also was third with a .689 slugging percentage. His 17 home runs are tied for 3rd overall in the Conference and 56 RBI are 7th most overall. His 17 HRs are tied for 6th most in UW single-season history.
• Alex Hardy leads the Pac-12 with a 2.08 ERA, is tied for 4th with 8 saves and 4th in appearances (33). In Pac-12 play, he led the league with an ERA of 1.27 and opposing batting average against of .176. His 33 appearances are tied for sixth most in UW single-season history. The fifth-year senior is also climbing UW's record books, ranking 7th all-time with 70 career appearances. His next career save will give him 10 and move him into UW's top-10 career list.
• Joe DeMers enters the weekend fourth on the all-time UW starts list with 45 and is third with 284.1 IP. His 186 strikeouts are seventh all-time. His 113.1 innings in 2018 is third most in single-season history.
• Four-year walk-on Levi Jordan ranks 6th all-time in UW with 205 games. He will dislodge Joe Trippy (206) for fifth with his next game. He also ranks 5th all-time with 690 career at bats and will pass his former teammate, Jack Meggs, with two more at bats.
• Nick Kahle has 19 doubles, which are the second most ever by a UW catcher, trailing Dominic Woody, who had 22 in 1999. The sophomore has also caught 463.2 of 480.2 possible innings (96.4%) behind the plate.
• Braiden Ward leads the Pac-12 with 17 stolen bases. His total is the most by a UW freshman since Chris Magruder swiped 18 in 1996.