MALIBU, Calif. — After a week of tremendous highs accompanied by distressing lows, Gonzaga baseball was in search of an inner balance that felt more elusive than usual in the heat of a West Coast Conference series with Pepperdine.


A 9-0 win at WSU called off early after an injury on Tuesday, an electric no-hitter on Friday and a potential series clincher that disintegrated in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday — such was a chaotic week so far for the Zags, who haven't lost two straight since the last weekend of March.


But the Bulldogs (22-13, 11-4 WCC) returned to their statement-making ways in the series finale on Sunday at Eddy D. Field, blasting ahead with a six-run second and putting up runs in five consecutive frames for an 11-6 win at Pepperdine after falling behind 0-2 in the first. 


Brett Harris went 3-for-3 and scored two runs to lead GU on offense, which broke double-digit runs for the third time this week. Guthrie Morrison picked up three hits of his own and scored four runs, and Gabriel Hughes and Andrew Orzel tied with a team-high three RBI and two hits apiece.
 
"Proud of our guys effort today," said Head Coach Mark Machtolf. "We would have loved to come home with 3 W's, but securing a series win on the road at Pepperdine isn't an easy task. 
 
"Excited for our group going forward. A lot of important games down the stretch." 
 
RHP Trystan Vrieling came into the game after ⅔ of an inning but earned the win with five innings of work, striking out six while holding Pepperdine's batters scoreless in that span despite six hits. RHP Daniel Naughton and Michael Spellacy took care of the rest, weathering a late flurry of solo homers from the Waves in the eighth and ninth to close out the series win.
 
The Action
 
Pepperdine put the first two runs of the game on the board in the bottom of the first, with Ryan Johnson doubling to right center to score Reese Alexiades and a flyout from Connor Bradshaw getting Justin Lutes home for run No. 2. 

Vrieling took the mound in relief after the second run, with GU opting to pitch by committee for the rest of the game. Vrieling struck out Billy Cook swinging to close the inning without any further damage but the Zags were in a 2-0 hole early.
But GU produced an answer almost immediately in the next frame, and in typical fashion — loading the bases and capitalizing off miscues to churn out six runs before Waves throwers Trevor Kniskern (one K, three hits, five runs) or Jack Baird (one hit, one run, one walk) could pick up a third out.
 
Grayson Sterling and Jack Machtolf got on base for free after Sterling was hit by a pitch and Machtolf was walked, and Morrison singled to load the bases. Gabe Hughes was hit in the next AB for an unearned run from Sterling, and Yake followed with a single to score Machtolf and tie the game with the bases still loaded.
 
Baird took over for Kniskern at that point, but a flyout from Marenco broke the tie, Harris was hit by another pitch and Rando was walked for another unearned run. Orzel followed that with a two-RBI single up the middle to make it a 6-2 ball game before Baird could strike out Sterling looking to get out of the frame.
 
And while Vrieling and the Zags' fielders held the Waves scoreless over the next five frames, they score at least one run in each of the next four to extend the lead to 11-2: Hughes singled to drive in Morrison in the third, Orzel hit up the middle again for a run from Harris in the fourth, another walk and a wild pitch put up runs from Harris and Yake in the fifth, and Hughes doubled to right center to yield yet another run from Morrison.
 
Naughton took Vrieling's place in the bottom of the seventh, but Pepperdine began mounting a rally attempt buoyed by three homers in the final two frames.
 
Caparis scored an unearned run off a bases-loaded walk in the seventh to get on the board for the first time since the first inning, and Cook and Aharon Modlin both slammed solo homers in the eighth with no outs, but Spellacy (two K's, one hit, one run) took the mound and struck out two to keep the Waves from chipping into the lead any further that inning. Alexiades connected on another solo slam in the ninth, but Lutes fouled out and Johnson and Bradshaw grounded out to end the game.


Inside the Series
 
With the win, GU is 39-35 against the Waves since 2000 and winners of a series against them for the first time since 2018. The teams didn't face each other in the shortened 2020 season, but Pepperdine got the best of the Zags in a 2-1 series win in 2019.
 
Next Up
 
Another four-game week awaits the Bulldogs, who head to Seattle Tuesday for a rematch with a Washington team they topped 7-2 in Spokane on March 23. Since that meeting, the Huskies (15-16) were swept at home by No. 21 Oregon State, but responded with a resilient series win on the road against No. 10 UCLA and a three-game sweep of Texas State — their second of the year.