Bulldogs / Lions Meet For Early Season Coast Division Supremacy
3/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 14, 2000
SPOKANE, Wash. -
Gonzaga (9-9, 2-2 WCC)vs.
#25 Loyola Marymount (14-5, 3-0 WCC)
March 17-19 @ August / A.R.T. Stadium (Spokane)
Series Record:
(LMU leads all-time series 11-5)
Friday: 2:00 p.m.
Saturday: 1:00 p.m.
Sunday: 1:00 p.m.
THE WEEK AHEAD: Gonzaga returns home to face Loyola Marymount in a Coast Division match-up. Loyola Marymount was selected the pre-season favorite to win the Coast Division after claiming the last two West Coast Conference titles. The Lions are ranked in several polls and enter the game coming off a three game division sweep of San Francisco. Gonzaga plays only its second home series of the season and is coming off an eight game, seven day road trip on which the Zags finished 3-5. Gonzaga was able to pull off a split in its Sunday conference double-header at Santa Clara. The Bulldogs were selected to finish third in the WCC pre-season poll.
WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP: The Bulldogs arrive back home to Spokane following a week long road trip to Northern California on which Gonzaga finished with a 3-5 record for the week. The Zags finished seventh at the Pepsi / Johnny Quik Classic with a 2-4 record before splitting a double-header with conference foe Santa Clara. The Zags finished fourth in their half of the Fresno State tournament bracket despite looking like a tournament favorite on paper. The trip witnessed Gonzaga using most of its pitching staff throughout the week while saving their top two pitchers for the weekend conference series. All but one of Gonzaga's eight games for the week were decided by two runs or less with the Zags going 3-4 in those contests.
VS. LMU: The Lions enter the series on a conference role after sweeping San Francisco over the weekend. Mike Hymes leads LMU in the early going with a .412 average while Scott Walter has provided the Lions early season power with 8 home runs and 30 RBI's. LMU has also posted a balanced pitching attack early in the year with a 4.64 team ERA and their top two pitchers boast ERA's under 4.00. Gonzaga does have the edge in recent years despite trailing the all-time series. Gonzaga won two-of-three last season versus LMU when both teams were in opposite divisions. This year they are both competing for the Coast Division title.
HERTZ QUEST FOR 600 CONTINUES: Steve Hertz is in the midst of his third decade of coaching at Gonzaga as he leads the Bulldogs for his 21st season as head coach. An All-Conference pitcher at Gonzaga in the early 1970's, Hertz guided the Bulldogs to an NCAA Regional Final in his first season as head coach in 1978. Following a two-year stint as head coach at UC-Irvine, Hertz returned to his alma mater in 1981 and has guided the Bulldogs through three different conferences. In his 20 years at Gonzaga, Hertz has compiled a 533-532-5 mark while his 22-year career record stands at 592-594-5.
KICKING IT AROUND: Gonzaga struggled on the defensive front during its week long road trip to Northern California. The Zags committed 22 errors in the eight game stretch which proved to be costly during the 3-5 week. For the week Gonzaga pitchers yielded 51 runs with only 32 runs being earned during that stretch. The Zags watched as 19 unearned runs crossed the plate during the 8 game week for an average of 2.4 unearned runs per game. Of the five games the Bulldogs dropped on the road trip, three losses were by one run while another loss was by two runs. Gonzaga has not played an error free game since posting back-to-back error-less games against Washington on February 26-27. As a team Gonzaga is fielding at a .943 clip after fielding at a .938 mark for the road trip.
HOT RODLAND: Freshman second baseman Eric Rodland has found his groove at the college level. After opening the season with a six game hitting streak, Rodland is in the midst of his second streak of the season. Rodland's current hitting streak stands at 11 games and is a Gonzaga high for the 2000 season. The previous season-high was a 10-game streak by Barry Matthews that was snapped earlier this year.
A COMPLETE DAY'S WORK: The Gonzaga team is getting the most out of its pitching staff early in the 2000 season. To date seven pitchers have tossed at least 10 innings on the season as the Zags stand at 9-9. However, two pitchers have been putting in a full day's work when they take the mound. Barry Matthews is coming off his second complete game of the season a 5-3 victory over Santa Clara. His two complete games ties the number of complete games Matthews threw during the 1999 campaign. Freshman Sean Lichter also joins Matthews on the complete game list after throwing a complete game in first collegiate start. Lichter was the hard luck loser in a 2-1 decision against Southern Illinois. Senior Steve Bennett should also be on the list after tossing nine innings against Pepperdine, but was a no-decision recipient after the Waves won the game in extra innings. Gonzaga is already half-way to its 1999 team total of six complete games.
PUT IN THE SOUTHPAWS: While the Bulldogs sit at .500 on the season, they have been rather successful in games against left-handed starters. In six games that opponents have started left-handers, Gonzaga has posted a 5-1 record while batting .290 as a team. If statistics hold true then the Zags could be in for a big weekend as Loyola Marymount is scheduled to start two southpaws during their three game trip to Spokane.
NOT THE RECORD OF CHOICE: Senior pitcher Matt Siwek will appear in most career record categories at Gonzaga when he finishes his career this season. Earlier this year, Siwek became the career leader for appearances at Gonzaga with 74 and tied the career record for saves with 10. Siwek is also steadily climbing up the innings pitched list but over the past week climbed higher on a list most pitchers don't want to be on. Siwek has been on the short-end of several tight games and dropped to 0-3 for the season, tying him for second place on the career losses record book. Siwek's record is not indicative of his value as he has a 5.23 ERA and 2 saves on the year.
GONZAGA BATS COMING OUT OF HIBERNATION: The long ball stroke that Gonzaga displayed during the 1999 season en-route to setting a school record for home runs, seems to be returning as the weather warms up. After being shut out in their opening six games of the season, Gonzaga has now hit at least one home run in each of their last five games. The season total for the Bulldogs now stands at 10, while Jason Bay and Adam Stokey continue to climb the career home run chart with each additional blast. Bay currently leads the team with three home runs while Stokey is tied for second on the team with Barry Matthews and Jared Hertz at two home runs each. The other Zags home run came courtesy of sophomore Kevin Cave who connected on his first career home run during the Pepsi / Johnny Quik Classic in Fresno.
STEALING ZAGS: After last season's squad broke numerous power hitting records the fact that the Zags are stealing more bases than usual comes as a surprise. In Gonzaga's last 8 games the Bulldogs have swiped 14-of-16 bases and now have 20 steals on the season. In 52 games last season the Zags collected only 38 stolen bases, led by Kevin Taylor's seven steals. Jason Bay and Brian Munhall currently lead the group of Zag bandits with Bay being 5-for-5 in the stolen base department and Munhall a solid 4-for-5. Despite averaging just over one steal per game, the Zags are still well off the team record of 140 stolen bases set during the 1981 season.
DOUBLE DIGIT K'S AGAIN: For his third consecutive start, senior Steve Bennett struck out at least ten batters to move his season total to 58 strike outs. Bennett started his string of double-digit strike out performances with a record tying 18 strike out game against the Washington Huskies. Bennett then followed that up with a 12 K outing against Pepperdine before setting down 10 Santa Clara Broncos over the weekend. Bennett currently leads the West Coast Conference in strike outs and ranks sixth on the career list at Gonzaga with 209 strike outs.
HELPING HIS OWN CAUSE: In five games that Barry Matthews has started for the Zags this season Gonzaga has posted a 4-1 record with the only loss coming when Matthews pitched only one inning against UNC-Asheville. Matthews also pulls double-duty as the teams designated hitter and has helped his own cause early in the season as Matthews has posted a 4-0 record to open the 2000 campaign. In games in which Matthews serves as both starting pitcher and designated hitter, he is hitting 8-for-17 for a .471 average. In those opportunities Matthews has also driven in eight runs, scored six runs and connected for two doubles.
