SURPRISE, Ariz.— Kansas State collected nine hits and held Gonzaga batters to four on its way to a 6-1 win over GU Monday morning to split the two-game series in the final day of the Ford Sanderson Classic at Surprise Stadium.
 
GU starter Trystan Vrieling exited the game after throwing five pitches with an injury from contact with a ball, but the Bulldogs' relievers performed admirably in his absence, keeping the Wildcats (2-2) scoreless after five innings.
 
"Not the result we wanted today, tough blow to lose our starter after five pitches but fortunately he is going to be okay," GU coach Mark Machtolf said. "Lots of things to build on after weekend one and work to do to make ourselves better each day going forward."
 
Five relievers combined to allow four earned runs on seven base hits over the rest of the game. 
 
RHP's Nico Zeglin and William Kempner took up the majority of the workload, combining for 6.2 innings and giving up three hits. Zeglin struck out three Wildcat batters and walked two with no earned runs, and Kempner matched Zeglin with three K's of his own, including a shutout eighth that went without a hit.
 
But KSU starter Kasey Ford earned the win, throwing 5.2 innings while holding the Zags without an earned run on four hits, walking four.
 
Cameron Thompson broke the game open for the Wildcats in the sixth, keying in a three-run frame with an RBI single and a run off another single from Dylan Phillips. K-State followed that up with two more runs off two more singles from Thompson and Nick Goodwin in the seventh.
 
A sacrifice fly to center field from Tyler Rando sent Brett Harris home for the Zags' sole run in the eighth, but the Zags picked up four hits and were walked by Wildcat pitchers 10 times. Rando paced the Bulldogs (2-2) with a 2-for-4 outing and an RBI while Harris went 1-for-2, getting walked three times.
 
Thompson scored his second run at the top of the ninth to put the Wildcats back up by five before the final frame, finishing 2-4 with a double and a walk.
 
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, GU managed to load the bases for a last-gasp push, but another pop fly to center field by Rando was snagged to end the game.

Weekend in Review

With a win over New Mexico, a two-game split with K-State and a loss to Oregon, the Zags leave Surprise Stadium 2-2 heading into their first four-game series of the season. Over the weekend, the Zags were outhit by opponents on average, but the Zags got on base at a 43.2% clip as opposed to 41.8% from the field. Against KSU and UNM, the Zags earned 22 runs to the opponents' 14.

Notes

-The KSU-GU all-time series is now 1-1 after the two teams met for the first time ever on Saturday.

-Alec Gomez, Michael Spellacy and Nico Zeglin were the only Zags relievers to appear in multiple games this weekend, with two apiece.

-Brett Harris was walked three times, matching a career high set in the last game of 2020 at Washington State. Through four games, Harris leads the Bulldogs in hits (6), runs (7) and batting average (.545).

-Tyler Rando is 2-for-3 on the season when bases are loaded.

-In total, Zags batters were walked 10 times Monday, more times than in any game since 2017.

-William Kempner and Zeglin both posted career highs in IP, Zeglin with 4 and Kempner with 2.2.

Up Next
 
The Zags hit the road again next weekend for a four-game series Feb. 25-28 at Dallas Baptist. The 2-0 Patriots are ranked No. 30 nationally by D1Baseball.com and have advanced to NCAA Regional finals every year since 2016.
 
Follow the Game
 
Up-to-date game time information is available on GoZags.com, and free live streaming will be available via DBU. GU is set to start the series at 4:30 p.m. PT on Thursday, Feb. 25.