Falcons Fall in Series Opener to Cougars

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Washington St.	2	0	3	0	0	1	2	3	0	11	13	1
Air Force	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	8	3

Washington St.

Air Force

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo., - The Falcons (23-23, 14-8) dropped game one of their final Mountain West series, 11-2, to Washington State (26-23, 14-9) on Friday afternoon at Erdle Field. Air Force batters tallied eight hits while the pitching staff struck out four.

Walker Zapp led at the plate, as he went 3-for-4 with one RBI and a pair of doubles. Shortstop Ben Niednagel accounted for the other Falcon RBI and totaled two hits.

Aiden Poe (3-2) earned the start on the mound, tossing five innings with two strikeouts while allowing three earned runs. Marcus Downing followed with 1.2 innings of relief before senior Joey Collier struck out two batters in one inning of work. Charlie Russell closed out the final 1.1 innings.

Washington State struck first with two runs in the opening inning before adding three more in the third to take a 5-0 advantage.

The Falcons answered in the bottom half of the third. Christian Taylor doubled to deep center field and later scored on an RBI double by Zapp to cut the deficit to 5-1.

Air Force added its final run in the fifth inning when Niednagel sent a solo homer over the right field wall, marking his fifth long ball of the season and trimming the score to 5-2.

The Cougars pulled away late, scoring once in the sixth, twice in the seventh, and three times in the eighth to secure the 11-2 victory.

The two teams return to Erdle Field for game two on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT.

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Joey Collier

Marcus Downing

Ben Niednagel

Aiden Poe

Charlie Russell

Christian Taylor

Walker Zapp

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