Feb. 17, 2002
Box Score
PASCO, Wash. - Gonzaga (4-5) fell behind 8-0 in the first inning but managed to rally in the middle innings to win a wild 14-10 contest over Washington State (2-3) in the final game of a weekend series at Columbia Basin College.
Washington State played small ball in the bottom of the first inning scoring eight runs on five singles. The Cougars were able to take advantage of a bad outing by Errol Simonitsch as the lefthander walked three batters and hit another while lasting only a two-thirds of an inning. A walk by relief pitcher Steve Hare placed Kyle Nearhood in the game to get the final out of the inning. Bookie Gates drove home one of the eight Cougar runs as he collected two of the WSU singles in the inning.
Gonzaga would give Nearhood some run support in the top of the second scoring three runs on three hits and one Cougar error. The Zags continued to feast on WSU pitching in the fourth and fifth innings as Eric Rodland smashed a 3-run homerun and Garth Blumberg added an RBI double to close the gap to 8-7. Washington State extended the lead to 9-7 in the bottom of the fourth as Jeffrey LaRue hit a solo homer.
Blumberg again contributed in the fifth inning with a 3-run homerun that gave Gonzaga its first lead of the game at 10-9. The Cougars would again tie the game as Derek Bruce hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the inning. Nearhood would leave the game in the bottom of the fifth after pitching 4.1 innings of relief.
Freshman Eric Dworkis (3-0) enter the game for Nearhood and force Gates into an infield pop up to get the Zags out of the fifth. Dworkis would finish the game striking out four batters while allowing only 3 hits.
Gonzaga's offense would again explode in the eighth inning as Brian Munhall doubled to center to break the tie. Kemp Quackenbush would add a two-run single to left would give the Bulldogs a four-run cushion and saddle Cougar reliever Zach Fisher (0-1) with the loss.
Munhall and Blumberg each finished with three of the Bulldogs 15 hits, Blumberg finishing with four RBI. Bruce, Gates and Collin Henderson each finished with two hits for the Cougars.
