SPOKANE, Wash. — For the third straight day, Gonzaga baseball's offense came through with a monster day in a 12-3 win and series sweep over San Francisco on Sunday afternoon.
Gonzaga (23-17, 15-6) posted 12 or more runs in each of the three games and at least 15 hits in all three to knock the Dons (24-20, 12-9) out of the top spot in the WCC standings.
"It's a huge statement weekend, and for us to set ourselves up to play some meaningful games in May, it's really excited," assistant coach
Brandon Harmon said. "It's contagious right now, and I think they are really celebrating each other's successes. We have guys that are maybe not doing things that show up in the box score, but they are really impacting what this team is doing. That's really the fabric of who we are."
Gonzaga starter
Justin Blatner pitched well in his 4.0-plus innings, allowing just one run on three hits with four strikeouts and zero walks. Reliever
Alek Jacob entered with one on in the fifth inning and went the distance to get his team-leading sixth win. He threw 5.0 innings, allowing two runs on three hits with a strikeout and a walk.
On offense,
Austin Pinorini and
Nick Nyquist each had three RBI, while
Mason Marenco drove in four on a grand slam. Nyquist had three hits in the game, while Pinorini, Marenco and
Josh Bristyan each had two.
For the third straight day, Gonzaga jumped on the board early with three runs in first inning. Pinorini got his big day started with an RBI single for the first run and Nyquist then followed with a single of his own to score two more for a 3-0 lead.
USF got on in the second inning, but the game went scoreless until GU came to the plate in the fifth and posted five runs on six hits. Pinorini and Nyquist did more damage with the former knocking home two on a triple and the later knocking home one on a single.
Josh Bristyan capped the inning with an RBI single up the middle.
Marenco then came to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth and smashed his second home run of the weekend and first-career grand slam to left field to make it 12-3.
Gonzaga will hit the road for a midweek game on Tuesday at No. 2 Oregon State at 5:35 p.m. Links to live coverage will be available at GoZags.com.
