April 30, 2001
SPOKANE, Wash. -
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GONZAGA (24-20, 15-9 WCC) TRAVELS TO BATTLE SANTA CLARA (21-26, 15-9 WCC) FOR WCC LEAD, AFTER TWO-GAME SET WITH WASHINGTON (24-15)
MONDAY - APRIL 30 (August/A.R.T. Stadium)
Washington at Gonzaga, 3 p.m.
TUESDAY - May 1 (August/A.R.T. Stadium)
Washington at Gonzaga, 3 p.m.
FRIDAY - May 4 (Buck Shaw Stadium)
Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 6 p.m.
SATURDAY - May 5 (Buck Shaw Stadium)
Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 1 p.m.
SUNDAY - May 6 (Buck Shaw Stadium)
Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 1 p.m.
GONZAGA GARNERS THIRD STRAIGHT WCC SWEEP: Gonzaga continued to play good baseball over the weekend as the Zags swept their third straight West Coast Conference series against the University of San Francisco. The win runs Gonzaga's current WCC win streak to nine, the longest streak the Zags have ever had since joining the WCC in 1996. Once again Gonzaga received strong pitching performances from its starting trio of Barry Matthews, Sean Lichter and David Hixson. On Friday, Matthews baffled Dons hitters allowing only one-run during Gonzaga's 15-1 bashing of San Francisco. Jared Hertz had a big day at the plate with four RBI's while Eric Rodland chipped in with three RBI. Saturday afternoon turned out to be a pitcher's duel as Sean Lichter looked sharp working 8.2 innings during the Zags 2-1 win. Danny Evans second career home run in the bottom of the seventh was enough to lift the Bulldogs to the win, while Eric Everson struck out the final Dons batter for his third save of the year. In Sunday's finale, Nate Gold provided all the power Gonzaga would need as he hit a grand slam to cap a five-run first inning as the Zags won 6-3. David Hixson combined with Kyle Nearhood and Everson to keep the Dons offense in check as Everson picked up his second save of the weekend. Earlier in the week Gonzaga dropped a pair of games to nationally ranked Arizona State. The Zags stranded the tying run on second base in the ninth on Monday as they fell short on the upset bid 7-6. The Sun Devils pitching staff over-powered Gonzaga in the second contest striking out 16 Zags en route to a 9-1 win.
THE HERTZ ERA CONTINUES: Gonzaga head coach Steve Hertz enters his 22nd season as the head coach of the Bulldogs and 24th season as a Division I head coach. During his tenure with the Bulldogs Hertz has compiled a 577-569-5 record including two trips to the NCAA Regionals. The last two seasons Gonzaga has been in contention for the Coast Division title of the West Coast Conference finishing second in both campaigns. Overall, Hertz has compiled a 636-631-5 record winning his 600th career game on April 8, 2000 against Saint Mary's College.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES: This will be the first of two mid-week series between Gonzaga and Washington. The Huskies lead the all-time series 52-43 with the teams splitting the six games in 2000. The first two games of this series will be in Spokane followed by a pair of games in Seattle on May 15 and 16. Washington is coming off a weekend Pac-10 series win at Washington State, winning two of three games against the Cougars. The Huskies stand at 24-15 overall and head coach Ken Knutson has compiled a 309-200 record during his nine years at UW. Washington is led by Michael Done who is hitting a team-high .361 with six home runs. Jay Garthwaite is the team's top RBI man with 39 on the season.
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: This will be the second series this season between Gonzaga and Santa Clara with the Zags winning two of three games played earlier this season in Spokane. The two squads are currently tied for the Coast Division lead with a five game advantage over third place San Francisco. Santa Clara remains below the .500 mark on the season with a 21-26 record, but a 15-9 mark in WCC action. Mike Cummins has compiled a 70-125 record in four years with the Broncos. Jack Headley and Matt Queen are the Broncos top hitters as Headley leads the squad with a .346 average and Queen has driven in 49 runs. John Redmond has become the team's most effective pitcher at 5-3 and a 4.30 ERA.
GOLDEN SHOT: With his first inning grand slam on Sunday against San Francisco junior Nate Gold moved into the single season Gonzaga record book with his eleventh home run of the season. Gold tied former Bulldog standouts Mac Gebbers (1982), Jim Carnell (1981), Lenn Sakata (1974) and Steve Staats (1971) in tenth place on the Zags all time list. With another shot Gold will move into a tie for eighth with current teammate Barry Matthews (1999) and former Zag Carter Masterson (1994). The single-season record at Gonzaga is 21 home runs set in 1984 by All-Pac-10 North selection Jeff Hainline. Gold could also have some company in the record book this season as teammates Matthews and Kevin Richardson each stand at ten home runs on the season. In addition to his record book blast, Gold's five RBI day moved into the team lead with 37 RBI.
EVERSON ETCHES NAME IN RECORD BOOK: Freshman Eric Everson has worked his way into the Gonzaga single-season record book after earning his third and fourth saves of the season over the weekend. Everson moved into a tie for fifth place on the single-season list with four saves joining five former Zags with four saves in a season. Everson moved into the closer role when David Hixson rejoined the starting rotation four weeks ago.
BASEBALL ON THE AIR: Two games from Gonzaga's crucial West Coast Conference series against Santa Clara will be aired on KFAN AM 790 in the Spokane area. Bob Robertson will call the play-by-play for Saturday and Sunday's games against the Broncos. Fans can also catch the broadcast on the Gonzaga athletic website at www.gozags.com.
IS THE THIRD TIME A CHARM: For the third consecutive year Gonzaga goes into the final two weeks of the season in sight of its first WCC Division title. This season Gonzaga controls its own destiny entering the crucial divisional series in a tie for first place. Two seasons ago Gonzaga trailed Pepperdine by three games with a three-game series against the Waves in Malibu to win the division, Pepperdine would sweep the series. Last season Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount battled down the stretch as the Zags traveled to Los Angeles trailing the Lions by 2.5 games. LMU would sweep that series and go onto to win the WCC title. Prior to the last three seasons Gonzaga's last title race was in 1989 when Zags lost the Pac-10 North regular season title to Washington State by a single game. That year, Gonzaga needed a doubleheader sweep of the Cougars on the final day of the season to clinch the championship but could only win one game against Washington State.
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS: As the old sports adage says, "Defense Wins Championships," and that has never been truer then in Gonzaga's current nine game WCC winning streak. In that stretch the Bulldogs are fielding an incredible .985 with only five errors in 334 chances. Gonzaga has won six of those games with out committing an error which has helped the Zags pitching staff compile a 1.33 earned run average over the nine game span. Gonzaga's three starters during the stretch Barry Matthews (1.57), Sean Lichter (1.07) and David Hixson (2.05) have all given up five or less runs in over 22 innings of work with each starters ERA at 2.05 or less. Gonzaga's offense has also responded outscoring its opponents 76-14 in the last nine WCC contests.
SUCCESS AT THE TOP: A large portion of Gonzaga's success at the plate this season can be attributed to the success of the top of its order. During Gonzaga's 24 wins on the season eight of the nine starters are hitting over .300 with the heart of the order combining for a .401 batting average led by Nate Gold (.407) and Kevin Richardson (.404). Gonzaga's three through six hitters are also delivering big hits combining for two-thirds of Gonzaga's RBI's in wins (103-of-172 RBI). Gonzaga's pitching staff has also been rather dominant during its 24 wins allowing less than three runs per contest (2.96) in each of the Bulldogs win this season. In those contests Gonzaga's offense is scoring over seven runs.
