Washington State University junior Joe Pistorese was named the Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week for April 7-13, conference commissioner Larry Scott announced Monday.
Pistorese pitched his second-straight complete game in Washington State’s 4-1 win over No. 5 Oregon State, April 11. He outdueled OSU’s Ben Wetzler, who entered the contest with a 6-0 record and 0.38 ERA.
A native of Kalispell and former standout ace for the Kalispell Lakers, Pistorese limited the Beavers to four hits while striking out four. He became the first Cougar to throw back-to-back complete games since Adam Conley in 2011 and the first to have three complete games in a season since Chad Arnold in 2010.
This is Pistorese’s first-career Pac-12 Pitcher of the week honor and the 34th all-time for Washington State. In combination with WSU junior Yale Rosen’s Pac-12 Player of the Week honor for March 31-April 6, this marks the first time since 1996 that two Cougars have won back-to-back conference weekly honors. In 1996, Jim Horner (Player), Jered Fowler (Player) and Robert Ramsay (Pitcher) earned the awards in three consecutive weeks.
The Cougars are 16-16, 7-5 Pac-12 and tied with UCLA and Oregon for fourth in the conference standings. Washington leads the Pac-12 with a 12-3 conference record followed by Oregon State at 11-4 and Arizona State at 9-6.
RELATED: Big League Prospects