June 30, 2009

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University appears at No. 22 in Baseball America and at No. 23 in the Rivals.com final season rankings. The Zags finished the season with an overall record of 36-18, marking the most wins by a Bulldog club since 1990.

This season saw the Zags claim the program's inaugural West Coast Conference regular season and Championship Series titles and make their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1981. A number of honors were awarded to the Zags led by head coach Mark Machtolf who was named WCC Coach of the Year while senior starting pitcher Matt Fields took home WCC Pitcher of the Year and also received All-America third team honors by Collegiate Baseball. Fields, Anthony Synegal, Tyson Van Winkle and Ryan Wiegand each earned All-WCC accolades while Steven Ames received All-WCC honorable mention.

The Zags closed out the season by posting a 1-2 record at the NCAA Tournament Regional round held in Fullerton, Calif. The Bulldogs opened the NCAA Tournament with a 19-10 win over Southern Conference champion Georgia Southern University, setting the GU record for most runs scored in an NCAA Tournament game. Gonzaga later battled the NCAA tournament's No. 2 national seeded Cal State Fullerton into the late innings. Using a two-run home run from Synegal to tie the game at 4-4 in the fifth inning before the Titans, playing at their home field, pushed across single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to earn a 7-4 win. The Zags then dropped a 9-7 decision to the University of Utah in an elimination game the following day to end the season.

In addition to posting the program's third consecutive 30-win season for the first time since 1980-82, a school-best and WCC-high five players were selected in Major League Baseball's Amateur Draft in June. Van Winkle was selected in the 10th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ames was taken in the 17th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fields was drafted in the 22nd round to the Toronto Blue Jays, Wiegand was selected in the 25th round by the Tampa Bay Rays and AJ Proszek went to the San Francisco Giants in the 38th round. The five Bulldogs drafted this year are the most ever to be selected for the Zags, passing the 2003 team that had four players taken in the draft. A total of 56 Bulldogs have now been drafted including 28 players who have been drafted during Machtolf's 19-year tenure at Gonzaga.

    TEAM                                   PVS
    ----                                   ---
 1. LSU (56-17)                              1
 2. TEXAS (50-16)                            4
 3. ARIZONA ST (51-14)                       2
 4. CS FULLERTON (47-16)                     3
 5. VIRGINIA (49-15)                         5
 6. NORTH CAROLINA (48-18)                   6
 7. ARKANSAS (41-24)                         8
 8. RICE (43-18)                             7
 9. FLORIDA ST (45-18)                       9
10. UC IRVINE (45-15)                       10
11. SOUTHERN MISS (40-26)                   11
12. FLORIDA (42-22)                         12
13. OLE MISS (44-20)                        13
14. TCU (40-18)                             14
15. LOUISVILLE (47-18)                      15
16. CLEMSON (44-22)                         16
17. EAST CAROLINA (46-20)                   17
18. OKLAHOMA (43-20)                        18
19. KANSAS ST (43-18)                       19
20. GEORGIA TECH (38-19)                    20
21. MINNESOTA (40-19)                       21
22. GONZAGA (36-18)                         22
23. WESTRN KENTUCKY (42-20)                 23
24. ELON (41-18)                            24
25. SOUTH CAROLINA (40-23)                  25