DALLAS, Texas — Dallas Baptist RHP Dominic Hamel and Gonzaga's Gabriel Hughes held both teams scoreless through three innings in a battle of aces Friday night, but DBU's batters outproduced GU's 14-6 and hit three home runs to even the four-game series with a 12-3 victory.
 
Hamel was dominant for the Patriots (4-1), holding the Bulldogs (3-3) to one earned run in 5.2 innings and posting 10 K's. Relievers Rhett Kouba and Joey Martin finished off the game, allowing only one more run and combining for four more strikeouts. 
 
Hughes struck out six, and finished with six earned runs, walking six in five innings of work. Jacob Rutherford, Ben Larson and Owen Wild split the final four innings, with Rutherford contributing a strikeout. 
 
Patriots pitchers only walked only three Zags Friday after letting 13 pass on Thursday, and their position players went errorless — as did GU, led by Tyler Rando with seven putouts.
 
Andrew Orzel finished 2-for-3 for GU, along with a run and back-to-back extra-base hits in the sixth and seventh. Guthrie Morrison, Tyler Rando, Jack Machtolf and Riley Livingston all picked up a hit apiece, and Brett Harris scored GU's other run off Machtolf's single to center field.
 
DBU broke through in the third when Grady batted in three runners with a triple to center field, but the Patriots followed it up in the fourth with two more runs off Austin Bell's homer.
 
After Bell, River Town and Ryan Wrobleski also went deep after Bell in an explosive five-run eighth inning that put the game out of reach.
 
"Not the best night from the Zags in all three facets of the game," said Head Coach Mark Machtolf. "Looking forward to a big response tomorrow."
 
Next Up
The series resumes at noon Saturday, featuring Gonzaga righty Alek Jacob (1-0, 7.20 ERA, 5.0 IP, 5 K) vs. Dallas Baptist's Ray Gaither (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.0 IP, 6 K). 
 
Follow the Game
Up-to-date game time information is available on GoZags.com, and free live streaming will be available via DBU. 


Series Background
This was the fourth meeting between Gonzaga and Dallas Baptist on the diamond, the first two being in 2005 and 2007, respectively. The series is now 2-2 all time.


Notes
-Brett Harris has been hit by a pitch an NCAA-leading seven times. Ernie Yake is tied with seven others for second.
-GU is tied for fourth in the nation in double plays with four on the season, and the Zags are ranked 15th in on base percentage (.442).
-Three of GU's hits were for extra bases, and two were from Andrew Orzel. The other was a Guthrie Morrison's double.