April 16, 2010
Box Score
SPOKANE, Wash. - On a night when members of Gonzaga University's 2009 West Coast Conference Championship team were presented their championship rings, the current group of Bulldogs did not disappoint a record crowd of 1,917, posting a 16-3 win over Pepperdine University in the WCC series opener Friday night. Friday night's attendance total surpassed previous top mark of 1,514, set back on the official dedication of Patterson Baseball Complex and Washington Trust Field on Apr. 20, 2007.
The Gonzaga (13-20-1, 2-1-1 WCC) offense finished with 21 hits and had eight starters record at least one hit led by Andy Hunter and Royce Bolinger who each produced four-hit games. Mark Castellitto, Hunter, Bolinger and Tyler Chism all drove in three runs to back starting pitcher Cody Martin who held the Waves (11-18, 1-2 WCC) to three runs while striking out six in six innings to get the win. Leadoff man Drew Heid added three hits and scored four times while Castellitto also scored three times.
Castellitto gave the Zags an early 1-0 lead in the first inning with a line drive single to left field to score Heid. Pepperdine picked up a run in the top of the third but the Bulldogs answered with three runs in each of the third and fourth innings to build a 7-1 lead. Heid led off the third with an opposite field single to left field and Steven Halcomb also followed with a base-hit to put two runners on. Castellitto came through for the second time on the night, driving a 2-2 pitch into the left centerfield gap to score both Heid and Halcomb. After a ground out moved Castellitto over to third, Royce Bolinger picked up an RBI with an infield single to second base, allowing Castellitto to come across for the inning's third run. In the fourth inning, Hunter picked up two more RBI with a seeing-eye single back up the middle and Bolinger followed with an RBI base-hit of his own to make it a 7-1 GU lead after four complete.
That was more than enough for Martin who regrouped after allowing that third inning run to post scoreless fourth and fifth innings. He did surrender a two-run homer in the sixth but the Gonzaga bats came right back to put the game away in their half of the frame with four runs to open up an 11-3 lead. In the inning, the Bulldogs received an RBI double from Hunter, and RBI singles from Edman, Hawk and Heid to open up their eight-run cushion.
In the ninth inning, the Bulldogs tacked on five more runs highlighted by Chism's pinch-hit three-run double. Gonzaga reliever Mark Phillips took over for Martin after the Bulldogs four-run sixth inning, firing back-to-back scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth before Jeremy Stumetz finished things up in the ninth.
Martin (4-3) picked up his second straight WCC win while the WCC's leader in ERA Pepperdine starter Matt Bywater took the loss after allowing seven runs, four of which were earned in five innings of work.
The Zags and Waves continue their series 1 p.m. Saturday.
