The Washington State Cougars baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team of Washington State University, located in Pullman, Washington. The Cougars' home venue is Bailey–Brayton Field, first opened for the 1980 season and located on the university's campus.
The program has been a baseball member of the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division I since the start of the 1960 season, following the dissolution of the Pacific Coast Conference. Through 2014, the Cougars have appeared in four College World Series and 16 NCAA tournaments. In conference postseason play, WSU has won one Northwest Conference Tournament, one Pacific Coast Conference Northern Division Tournament, one Pacific-8 Conference North Division Tournament, and four Pacific-10 Conference Northern Division Tournaments. In regular season play, the program has won five Northwest Conference Championships, 12 Pacific Coast Conference Northern Division titles, four AAWU Championships, nine Pac-8 North Division titles, and 11 Pac-10 North Division titles. As of the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, 32 former Cougars have appeared in Major League Baseball.
History
Early years
The first season of organized baseball at the school was in 1892, shortly after the school's founding. In that season, the team had an 11–1 record; its first game was a 26–0 victory over Pullman Military College on March 12. After a three-year hiatus from 1893–1895, the team returned for one season in 1896. After another break in 1897, baseball at Washington State returned permanently in 1898. Previously led by team captains, H.E. Lougheed was named its first head coach for the 1901 season. Through the end of the 1909 season, the program competed as an independent and compiled a 110–59–1 () record.
Washington State joined the Northwest Conference in 1910; prior to the 1912–1913 academic year, former head football coach John R. Bender returned to Pullman from Saint Louis University. He also served as the school's head baseball coach beginning with the 1913 season, in which the team won its first Northwest Conference title and finished at 7–1. The team won the conference title in 1914 and 1915, along with the conference tournament in 1915.
After the 1915 season, Bender left to coach football at Kansas State and was replaced by Fred Bohler, who led the team to Northwest Conference titles in 1916 and 1918. Following the 1918 season, the program joined the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), which had been formed in December 1915. In its first season in the PCC, the team finished fourth in 1919.
In 1919, the college adopted the Cougar as its athletic programs' official nickname.
Buck Bailey era
In the summer of 1926, thirty-year-old Buck Bailey came to Pullman as an assistant football coach and head baseball coach. Born and raised in central Texas, Bailey played baseball and football at Texas A&M and served in the U.S. Army during the First World War. In his first season as head coach in 1927, the Cougar nine finished first in the PCC North Division and won the PCC Tournament. The team also won the North Division title in 1933, 1936, and 1938.
In 1932, Art McLarney debuted for the New York Giants on August 23 and became the program's first alumnus to play in the major leagues.
In February 1943, Bailey joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Eugene Register-Guard article that announced Bailey's departure referred to him as an "athletic comedian," and other sources attest that Bailey had a colorful coaching style. For three seasons, 1943–1945, basketball coach Jack Friel coached the program.
Bailey returned prior to the start of 1946 season and resumed his coaching duties. From 1947–1950, the program won four consecutive PCC North Division titles. This run culminated in the program's first College World Series appearance in 1950, the first College World Series played at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. To qualify, the Cougars defeated Stanford to win the PCC Tournament. At the World Series, WSC opened with three consecutive wins over Tufts, Alabama, and Rutgers, but lost 12–1 to defending champion Texas, who had lost their opener in the double-elimination tournament. The last two teams remaining and both with one loss, the Cougars and Longhorns met again three days later in the national championship game, which Texas won 3–0. Future major leaguers Ted Tappe and Gene Conley played on the 1950 team.