Feb. 9, 2002

Box Score

BERKELEY, Calif. - Three Gonzaga (2-3) pitchers combined to blank California (2-4) Saturday afternoon as the Zags won the middle game of a weekend series at Evans Diamond, 7-0.

Ed Clelland pitched four shutout innings in his second start of the season but needed some bullpen help from Brent Dayton and Eric Dworkis when Cal posed its biggest threat of the afternoon. Clelland started the fifth inning giving up a walk to Jeff Dragicevich and a single to Derek Ayres. Dayton set down the first two Cal batters he faced on an infield pop up and ground out. After Dayton walked the next batter to load the bases, Dworkis recorded the third out on a fly ball by Conor Jackson. Dworkis (2-0) would go on to work the remaining four innings of the game to pick up his second win of the season in relief.

Gonzaga needed a solid pitching effort early in the contest as the Zags were clinging to a one-run lead in the fifth after Jeff Culpepper had delivered an RBI double in the second inning. Gonzaga added another run in the top of the sixth on a Brian Munhall sacrifice fly to right before exploding for five runs in the last two innings.

In the eighth Nate Gold delivered a solo homerun that was quickly followed by a two-run blast by Garth Blumberg. Blumberg had entered the game as a defensive replacement for Kemp Quackenbush in the sixth inning. Gonzaga added its final two runs in the ninth on a RBI walk by John Gebbers and sacrifice fly by Kevin Richardson.

Richardson was the only Gonzaga player with multiple hits finishing the afternoon 2-for-4. Dragicevich was the lone Cal player with multiple hits finishing 2-for-4. Golden Bears starter Brian Montalbo (0-1) was tagged with the loss despite pitching seven innings and allowing only two runs. The two teams will play the rubber-match of this weekend series Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.