SPOKANE, Wash. – Following a 3-2 start to the season at the Sanderson Ford Collegiate Baseball Classic in Surprise, Ariz., Gonzaga Baseball heads to Fullerton, Calif., Friday for its first true road series of the 2022 season against a historic college baseball powerhouse.

The Bulldogs are coming off a weekend in Arizona that saw them sweep New Mexico and rally to top Cal, but fall twice to No. 11 Oregon State. The Titans are 1-2 after a three-game series with No. 6 Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. to start the season, but outhit the Cardinal in two of those games with a pitching staff that touts a 3.96 ERA while holding Stanford batters to a .223 average.

Streaming will be available via ESPN+ for all three games of the series. Live stats for the games can be accessed by clicking on the live stats link located on the baseball schedule page on GoZags.com.

PROBABLE STARTERS

Feb. 25  |  7 p.m.  |  RHP Gabriel Hughes (0-0, 3.00) vs. RHP Cameron Repetti (0-1, 0.00)

Feb. 26  |  6 p.m.  |  RHP William Kempner (0-1, 6.23) vs. LHP Tyler Stultz (1-0, 0.00)

Feb. 27  |  Noon  |  RHP Trystan Vrieling (0-1, 18.00) vs. TBD (0-0, 0.00)

UPCOMING SERIES INFO

The Zags are 1-3 against the Titans all-time, falling 2-1 in a three-game series the last time they squared off in 2017. That series, each game was won by one run – GU won 1-0 in the opener, and CSUF won the next two by scores of 3-4 and 2-3. The Titans went on to make the College World Series that season, their 26th-straight tournament appearance at the time. All four games between the two teams have been played at Titan Stadium in Fullerton.

STRONG START IN SURPRISE

The Zags got offensive contributions from a variety of returners and new faces en route to winning three of five games over the weekend, with a pair of wins on Friday and Saturday against New Mexico and another against Cal on Monday. Nine GU hitters are riding multi-game hitting streaks this weekend after the Bulldogs connected on double-digit hits in each of their last four games.

As of Wednesday, the Zags offense ranks in the Top 10 in NCAA D-1 in multiple categories:

-6th in total hits (56)

-3rd in doubles (15)

-4th in triples (3)

With 10 players picking up at least three hits over the weekend, GU was paced on offense by a 9-for-21 weekend from Grayston Sterling (.429), who has connected on the most doubles in the nation (5) and 11th-most hits (9) to go with three RBI and four runs. Sophomore catcher/DH Stephen Lund has the next-best batting average on the team (.353) with six hits, two runs and three RBI. Grad Transfer 1B Shea Kramer has the fourth-most doubles in D-I with four, batting .250 with five hits, three runs and three RBI. 

Gabriel Hughes' 10 K's in his season debut against New Mexico lead the Zags bullpen, and LHP Bradley Mullan is the team's ERA leader after a six-inning start against New Mexico Feb. 19 that went without an earned run from the Lobos. Overall, the GU pitching staff had held opposing batters to a .269 average over the first five games of the season, with a strikeout/walk ratio of 43/21. The rest of the Zags defense has a fielding percentage of .967, with 47 assists on 129 putouts with six errors.
 

SEASON OPENING NOTES

- The Zags return 24 players from 2021 (42 on roster).

- GU was selected as the preseason West Coast Conference favorite by the league's 10 head coaches. GU earned nine of ten first-place votes.

- Catcher Stephen Lund and pitchers Gabriel Hughes, Trystan Vrieling and William Kempner were named to the Preseason All-WCC Squad.

- Reigning WCC Coach of the Year Mark Machtolf is entering his 19th season at the helm of the program, and his 32nd season on the Gonzaga coaching staff overall. He has a career record of 521-416-2.

ZAGS IN THE PRESEASON POLLS

Gonzaga clocked in at No. 35 in Collegiate Baseball's D-I Preseason Top 50 — the first national ranking by a news outlet ahead of the 2022 season. Collegiate Baseball also predicted the Bulldogs to repeat as West Coast Conference champions, with 2021 Freshman All-American Gabriel Hughes projected as the WCC Pitcher of the Year. Hughes was ranked No. 42 in MLB.com's 2022 Draft prospect rankings earlier in the year.

The Bulldogs' spring schedule includes matchups with three different opponents in Collegiate Baseball's Top 50 that appeared in 2021 NCAA Regionals — Oregon, Oregon State and Oklahoma State — squaring off with all three multiple times. Oklahoma State is ranked No. 7 in Collegiate Baseball's Poll, followed by the Ducks at No. 21 and the Beavers at No. 42. Other scheduled opponents in the receiving votes category include Washington State and conference foes BYU and San Diego.

In May of 2021, the Zags jumped to No. 17 in the D1Baseball Top 25, to No. 19 in Collegiate Baseball's rankings and broke into the top 25 in Baseball America, coming in at No. 25. Gonzaga's No. 17 ranking was the highest ranking for GU since a No. 19 ranking in 2017, and the highest since GU earned a No. 9 ranking from Collegiate Baseball back in 1980.

Gonzaga earned its first-ever national ranking during the 1971 season, earning the No. 15 spot in Collegiate Baseball's poll. GU's highest-ever national ranking came in the 1980 season when the Bulldogs were ranked ninth by Collegiate Baseball. Since 2010, Gonzaga has been ranked 19 times, reaching as high as 19th in both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball national rankings. Last season, GU picked up five wins over ranked opponents (Dallas Baptist, TCU and Oregon State), and held an RPI ranking as high as No. 27.

MORE PRESEASON ACCOLADES

GU's Friday-Saturday duo of sophomores Gabriel Hughes and William Kempner made Prospects Live's Preseason All-America list in January as a first-team starting pitcher and second-team reliever, respectively.

Hughes, who was one of five starting throwers on PL's First Team, was also projected to take home West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year honors by Collegiate Baseball News earlier in the month and is on the 55-man Golden Spikes Award Watchlist. The 6'4 righty also came in at No. 42 in MLB.com's 2022 Draft Prospect Rankings and No. 61 in a similar ranking by D1Baseball.com, the highest a GU player has been rated since Marco Gonzales in 2013.

Kempner, one of eight pitchers on the Second Team, made nine starts in 2021, going 3-3 with a 3.10 ERA over 40.2 innings pitched. A WCC Pitcher of the Week honoree

after an eight-inning, 10-strikeout performance against Portland, the 6-foot righty is slotted to assume the Zags' Saturday starting role on the mound.

D1Baseball.com's Shotgun Spratling wrote that Kempner "might be the nastiest sidewinder on the West Coast since former Bulldogs closer Wyatt Mills … His heavy fastball can get into the mid-90s while darting and diving all over the place."

2021 RECAP

The Zags are coming off a 2021 season that saw them finish with a 34-19 record, winning a WCC title en route to their highest-ever Regional seed in their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018. 

GU finished the season ranked in the top 50 nationally in several statistical categories:

    - Second in the nation in shutouts (8)

    - Seventh in fielding percentage (.981)

    - Sixth in HBP (100)

    - 47th in double plays (42)

    - 39th in doubles (108)

    - 41st in hits allowed per nine innings (8.19)

    - 44th in W/L percentage (.642)

GU returns 24 players from that squad, including 2021 All-WCC honorees Tyler Rando (C), Brody Jessee (RHP), Michael Spellacy (RHP), Grayson Sterling (OF) and Trystan Vrieling (RHP), but looks to replace three players selected in the 2021 MLB Draft and four lost to graduation. INF Brett Harris (Oakland Athletics), SS Ernie Yake (Minnesota Twins) and RHP Alek Jacob (San Diego Padres) all were selected in the 2021 MLB Draft — Harris was the 2021 WCC Defensive Player of the Year, Jacob was the Pitcher of the Year, and Yake earned All-Region honors, while GU Head Coach Mark Machtolf won his fourth WCC Coach of the Year Award.

Overall, GU returns nine of its top ten pitchers by ERA and six of its top ten hitters by average from last season. Collegiate Baseball named Rando, Vrieling and Jessee as the Bulldogs' other top returners along with redshirt sophomore catcher/DH Stephen Lund, who led GU in homers in 2021, and sophomore RHP Will Kempner, who posted a 3.10 ERA in 11 appearances in 2021.

TOUGH 2022 SCHEDULE

GU's 2022 schedule is highlighted by eight games against 2021 NCAA Tournament qualifiers and the return of the West Coast Conference Tournament. The reigning WCC champions are set to face three different opponents who appeared in the 2021 NCAA Regionals in the nonconference this spring — Oregon, Oregon State and Oklahoma State — squaring off with all three multiple times.

"Really excited about the schedule we were able to put together," said GU Head Coach Mark Machtolf. "The goal is to put our players in the best environment to prepare them to play in postseason games. Once again our nonconference schedule should be one of the most challenging in the country."

After this weekend's series and a midweek game with University of Washington March 1 in Seattle, two more road series with power conference foes are up next. The Zags take on Oklahoma State in Stillwater in a three-game series March 4-6 before four games with Missouri in Columbia. Other nonconference opponents during WCC play include Oregon in Spokane (March 22) and Eugene (May 17), a two-game road series with Oregon State (April 18-19) and matchups with Washington State in Spokane (April 5) and in Pullman (April 26).

The West Coast Conference Tournament is set for May 26-28 in Stockton, Calif., the first time it's taking place since 2019. Last year's tournament was not held in favor of a pennant race to decide the conference champion due to the COVID pandemic, and GU's 2020 season was canceled after just 16 games.
 

30 WINS AGAIN IN 2021

Gonzaga surpassed 30 wins for the fifth straight full season and eighth time in the last ten seasons in 2021, finishing the season with a 34-19 overall record. During head coach Mark Machtolf's now 19 years at the helm, GU has won at least 30 games 11 times.