SPOKANE, Wash. – The Gonzaga baseball team hosts BYU for a three-game West Coast Conference series at the Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field beginning Thursday at 6 p.m.
 
GONZAGA (23-13, 11-4 WCC) vs. BYU (12-20, 6-6 WCC)
APRIL 22 | 6 P.M. | PATTERSON BASEBALL COMPLEX | SPOKANE, WASH.
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APRIL 23 | 6 P.M. | PATTERSON BASEBALL COMPLEX | SPOKANE, WASH.
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APRIL 24 | 6 P.M. | PATTERSON BASEBALL COMPLEX | SPOKANE, WASH.
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Probables
April 22 | 6 p.m. PT 
TBA vs. TBA
 
April 23 | 6 p.m. PT 
TBA vs. TBA
 
April 24 | 6 p.m. PT 
TBA vs. TBA
 
West Coast Conference Outlook
- Gonzaga is currently on top of the West Coast Conference standings with an 11-4 mark in conference play. Portland and San Diego follow with a 10-5 and 8-4 WCC record, respectively, while San Francisco sits in fourth with a 9-6 conference record. BYU sits in sixth with an even 6-6 conference record. Pacific at 0-9 is the only winless team in the WCC.
- Gonzaga leads the WCC in strikeouts (355) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.7). Portland is the next closest with 334 strikeouts.
- The Bulldogs also lead the conference in fielding percentage at .982 with 951 putouts, which ranks second behind Portland (957). The Zags also have the fewest errors in the league with 23 and rank second league in double plays with 24. Pacific leads the league in double plays with 31.
- The Bulldogs rank second in the WCC in batting average at .282; San Diego leads the league with a .304 average while Portland and Pepperdine are tied for third at .257.
- The Zags lead the Zags in RBI with 213 and in hits with 351. Brett Harris ranks fourth in the conference in batting average at .370 and fifth in RBI with 29. Andrew Orzel ranks tied for third in the WCC in RBI with 30, while Tyler Rando (23 RBI, T-8) and Ernie Yake (22 RBI, T-11) all rank inside the top 15.
- GU also leads the conference in runs with 244; San Diego ranks second with 228 while San Francisco ranks third with 185 total runs.
- Gonzaga ranks second in the conference in double plays with 24 behind Pacific (31)
- Gonzaga was picked to finish the WCC second behind Pepperdine.
 
Racking Up the Honors
Gonzaga's Alek Jacob and Brett Harris swept the West Coast Conference awards this week as Jacob earned his second WCC Pitcher of the Week while Harris picked up his first honor of the season. Jacob's no-hitter with 12Ks helped the Zags to a 10-0 win at Pepperdine to open the WCC series. The Spokane, Wash., native was also selected as the Golden Spikes Award Pitcher of the Week, the NCBWA Division I National Pitcher of the Week, the Rawlings Sports Pitcher of the Week and the D1Baseball/AstroTurf USA Player of the Week.
 
Harris helped the Zags to a 3-1 mark on the week with a .583 batting average, seven hits, six runs, three RBI, three doubles and one home run. Harris added a 1.083 slugging percentage with just one strikeout in 12 at bats. The junior infielder added six putouts and four assists with a perfect 1.00 fielding percentage.
 
Nationally Speaking...
- Gonzaga jumped up to 25th in the RPI rankings (as of April 19), the highest of any team in the WCC. San Diego ranks 67th, while Pepperdine ranks 91st.
- Brett Harris has been hit by pitches 17 times on the year to rank tied for second nationally.
- As a team, GU batters have been hit by pitches 76 times; that number ranks second in the country and leads the West Coast Conference.
- Gonzaga ranks tied for fifth nationally and leads the WCC in doubles with 79.
- The Bulldogs also rank among the top 10 nationally in fielding percentage with a .981 fielding percentage. That number ranks ninth nationally.
- With seven shutouts on the year, Gonzaga ranks tied for first nationally.
 
Last Time Out
Gonzaga used a two-run third inning to build a lead at Washington, and a solo homer from Gabriel Hughes in the top of the fourth sealed the 3-0 win for the Zags. Alec Gomez was stellar on the mound, pitching 7.0 innings for the Zags giving up just one hit with five strikeouts on 110 pitches. Brody Jessee earned the save. The win completed the series season sweep for the Zags after the Bulldogs defeated Washington 7-2 at home back on March 23.
 
Zags at a Glance
- Brett Harris leads the Zags in batting average (.370) and OPS (1.048), while Ernie Yake ranks second with a .319 batting average.
- Tyler Rando leads the fielding effort with a team-high 241 putouts with 14 assists and a .996 fielding percentage. Andrew Orzel ranks second with 146 putouts, 31 assists and a .994 fielding percentage while Guthrie Morrison has 88 putouts.
- On the mound, Alek Jacob leads the team and the West Coast Conference in strikeouts with 68 with a 3.33 ERA, good for 13th. Gabriel Hughes ranks second on the team and third in the conference with 62 Ks in 55.0 innings pitched.
- The Zags have had multiple Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week honors this season. Most recently, the Zags have earned three-straight WCC Pitcher of the Week awards, with Alek Jacob earning the honor on April 5 and 19th with Gabriel Hughes taking it home on April 12. Hughes was also named Pitcher of the Week back on March 23, while William Kempner was named Pitcher of the Week on March 9. Stephen Lund (March 16) and Brett Harris (April 19) are the only Zags to take home player of the week honors.
 
Upcoming Series Info
Gonzaga leads the all-time series 22-20, and the Zags have won four of the last six meetings. The two squads met once in the shortened 2020 season at the Sanderson Ford Collegiate Classic in the first tournament of the season. The Cougars handled GU 7-1 in that meeting, contributing to the first neutral-site loss to BYU since 2017.