May 21, 2016 Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif.--The Gonzaga University baseball team settled for a share of the West Coast Conference title Saturday night, falling to San Diego 10-4 at Fowler Park. The Bulldogs will share the regular season championship with BYU and possibly Saint Mary's, which wraps up its WCC season Sunday, May 22.
In San Diego Saturday night, the Toreros leapt out to an early 6-0 lead, scoring in the each of the first three innings. Back-to-back RBI singles gave San Diego a 2-0 lead in the first, and the Toreros plated one more on an RBI single in the second. In the third, USD scored three more, chasing starter Hunter Wells in the process.
Gonzaga got on the scoreboard in the fourth, seeing its two leadoff batters come around to score. Both Tyler Frost and Justin Jacobs drew walks, giving the Zags two base runners. After a strikeout, Joey Harris ripped a single through the right side, plating Frost and sending Jacobs to third. In the next at bat, Nick Brooks singled to center field, allowing Jacobs to score. The Bulldogs then loaded the bases with an infield single, but the next two batters made outs to end the rally.
San Diego countered with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, but the Zags drew back within four in the fifth with another pair of runs. Harris and Brooks again teamed up for the RBIs, Harris drawing a walk to drive in a run and Brooks hitting a deep sacrifice fly to the warning track in center field.
After the Zags' half of the fifth, both teams' bullpens took over control of the game. Daniel Bies pitched 2.2 shutout innings for the Bulldogs, the longest outing of his short career. He gave way to Sam Hellinger in the seventh, and the junior transfer retired all three batters in the frame. For San Diego, CJ Burdick entered in the fifth inning and closed out the contest, holding the Zags scoreless in 4.1 innings of work for the win.
In the bottom of the eighth, San Diego picked up a pair of insurance runs, bringing the score to 10-4, the game's final.
Title Race:
With the loss, Gonzaga drops to 33-16 overall on the year and 18-9 in conference play. BYU closed out its conference season Saturday with a win over Santa Clara, giving the Cougars a WCC record of 18-9 as well. Both squads are considered regular season co-champions, but BYU will take the better seed in the WCC Championships via the head-to-head tiebreaker. Both clubs are a half-game ahead of Saint Mary's (17-9), which ends its WCC slate Sunday, May 22, at Portland. If the Gaels win that contest, they'll also be co-champions and will take the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
No matter the outcome of the Saint Mary's game Sunday, Gonzaga will be in the 2/3 game to begin the WCC Championships as Pepperdine has locked up the No. 4 seed at 16-10. The Waves have one more WCC game to play and have no chance at catching either Gonzaga or Saint Mary's in the standings.
Bulldog Bites:
- Bies, a redshirt freshman, saw his sixth appearance of the year and first since April 23 by coming out of the bullpen. The right hander set career highs with three strikeouts and 2.2 innings pitched.
- After drawing a walk in the third inning, Sam Brown extended his on base streak to 23 games. The streak is the longest of his career and equals the longest of any active Bulldog. During the streak (since April 5 vs. Washington State), he's reached base at a .402 clip, drawing 19 walks and five hit by pitches in addition to 23 hits.
- According to Nolan's Live RPI, the Zags are now 30th in Division I in RPI, 17 spots ahead of BYU and 41 in front of Saint Mary's.
Mac Talk: Thoughts from Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf:
- "Not the type of last game we wanted to wrap up with, but this group of Zags is 2016 regular season champions and we will celebrate that tonight! We look forward to a big game versus UCSB on Monday then will quickly shift our focus to Stockton and the WCC Championships."
Next Up:
Gonzaga will wrap up the regular season on Monday, May 23, with a non-conference game at UC Santa Barbara. The season finale against the Gauchos will begin at 3:00 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif. UCSB is No. 21 in the NCAA's RPI rankings.
