LAS VEGAS – Gonzaga Baseball is set to open its sixth-straight West Coast Conference Baseball Tournament appearance with a first-round single-elimination matchup with No. 3-seed Santa Clara (31-18, 17-10 WCC) on Wednesday.

The No. 6-seed Bulldogs (18-32, 14-13 WCC) are facing the Broncos for the fourth game in a row after closing out the regular season with a three-game series in Santa Clara, Calif., May 19-21. The other first-round matchup is between No. 4-seed San Diego (24-24-1, 17-10) vs. No. 5-seed Saint Mary's (21-26, 14-13) at 7:20 p.m. 

GU dropped all three games last week, but can eliminate SCU and get a matchup with No. 1-seed LMU (29-22, 21-6) on Thursday with a win. 

After Wednesday's opening-round action, the rest of the bracket is double-elimination — the lowest advancing seed advances to face the top-seeded Lions on Thursday at 3:00 p.m., with the higher seed facing No. 2-seed Portland later in the day at 7:20 p.m. GU needs four wins to claim a WCC Tournament championship and automatic NCAA Tournament bid, but need to win on Day One and win out if they drop a game after that.

#6 GONZAGA (18-33, 14-13 WCC) VS. #3 SANTA CLARA (31-18, 17-10 WCC)
Las Vegas Ballpark | Las Vegas, Nev.
May 24, 3 p.m | Live Stats | Stream | WCC Tournament Central

PROBABLE STARTERS
GU: RHP Owen Wild (4.93 ERA, 4-6, 87.2 IP, 98 K)
Santa Clara: TBA

LEADING OFF…
- Brian Kalmer's big-time bat continues to pace the Bulldogs on offense – the junior is batting .355 on the season and leads GU in hits (70), doubles (15), homers (15), runs (44) and RBI (51). He also ranks among the Top 5 in the WCC in nine different offensive categories, including No. 1 in RBI (51) and walks (36). 
- Freshman outfielder Sam Stem is batting .314, and is tied with Enzo Apodaca for the third-most triples in the league with three apiece. Apodaca has worn a hit-by-pitch 10 times – the eight-most in the league. Connor Coballes has connected on the second-most sacrifice flies in the league with five.
- GU's top two starters – RHP Owen Wild and RHP Jacob Rutherford – have both gone CG at least once each and both picked up WCC Pitcher of the Week honors at least.
- Wild, a Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-American and the Zags' Friday starter, ranks No. 28 in the country with 98 strikeouts and No. 10 in total innings pitched (87.2). Wild is set to make his 15th start of the season and second against Santa Clara in the last week on Wednesday.
- Last season, Head Coach Mark Machtolf's Bulldogs earned a program-best No. 10 ranking and their second straight year with a win in the NCAA Tournament  — the first time in program history they've done so under the current format  — after appearing as a #2 seed in the 2022 Blacksburg Regional. The Zags were picked by the league's coaches to repeat for the second straight season after matching their best record in conference play (20-7) the past two seasons.

ZAGS VERSUS SANTA CLARA / LAST TIME OUT
- The Zags have a 52-31 edge in the series against SCU since 2000, having won the last eight meetings and swept the last two series until the Broncos swept them in Santa Clara last week for their first series win over GU since 2015. The Zags walked off SCU twice in last year's series sweep at home (3-2, 5-3, 4-1).
- In Thursday's series opener, a pair of home runs from Mason Marenco and Connor Coballes gave GU a 4-1 lead that they'd hold until the bottom of the ninth, when the Broncos rallied with four late runs for a walkoff 5-4 win.
- GU couldn't bounce back from a four-homer day from Santa Clara in Friday's Game Two, falling 12-1 after picking up six hits but stranding nine on base.
- Brian Kalmer's 15th homer of the year gave Gonzaga Baseball a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning of its regular season finale on Saturday, but a three-run response in the bottom of the frame from the Broncos) proved to be all the runs needed for a 5-3 sweep-sealing win.

BULLDOGS IN THE WCC TOURNAMENT
- Gonzaga is 11-12 all-time in the West Coast Conference Championships since the tournament went to a double-elimination format in 2013. The Bulldogs made three appearances in the WCC Championship series (2009, 2007, 2001) that were held from 1999 to 2009. GU went 4-4 in those appearances, sweeping Loyola Marymount in Spokane in the 2009 series.
- In the 2022 Tournament, Gonzaga dominated LMU in the first round 16-2, but moved into the loser's bracket after falling 3-5 to No. 3-seed San Diego in the next round. The Zags beat Portland 7-0 to stay alive, but the Toreros secured a WCC Tournament Championship and automatic NCAA bid with a 15-12 win in extra innings.
- Including this season, the Zags have appeared in eight of the nine WCC Tournaments since 2013, only missing the event in 2015. GU is the lone program in the conference to appear in the last six WCC Tournaments. The Bulldogs' eight WCC Tournament berths are the most in the league. (LMU at 7).
- Second-seeded Gonzaga won the 2018 West Coast Conference Tournament Championships, going 3-0 in the event and beating top-seeded Pepperdine 17-2 in the finals. The Bulldogs scored a program-record 34 runs during that title run.
- GU has been the top seed in the WCC Tournament twice (2017 and 2013), going 2-4 in those events. The Zags were the second seed twice (2019, 2018) and the third seed twice (2016, 2014) as well. 
- Gonzaga is 4-3 all-time in its first game at the WCC Tournament, winning four of the last five.
- The Bulldogs have appeared in four WCC Tournament finals (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022).

QUICK FACTS ENTERING THE SEASON
- The Bulldogs have made three of the last four NCAA tournaments that have been held.
- Since 2016, GU boasts a 212-159 record, with four WCC titles (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021) and three NCAA Tournament appearances (2016, 2018, 2021). 23 former Zags have been selected in the MLB Draft since then, with five making their major league debuts since 2020. The Zags have a 115-86 record against WCC opponents in that span.
- Since 2019, Gonzaga scored 578 total runs against WCC opponents, which leads the conference. The Bulldogs have led the WCC four separate times in strikeouts since 2016, including Brandon Bailey's 125 strikeouts in 2016, which was tied-7th for the most in Div 1.
- In the past decade, 52 Zags have been selected All-WCC, with 11 earning WCC First-Team honors, ten making the WCC Second Team, and 19 honorable Mentions. In 2021, GU picked up a program-record nine All-WCC honors while taking three of the five major awards.
- Coach Machtolf has earned WCC Coach of the Year five times during his tenure at Gonzaga, including three times since 2017. In addition, GU has had two WCC Players of the Year, two WCC Defensive Players of the Year, and three WCC Pitchers of the Year in the past decade.
- GU has had six Collegiate Baseball All-American selections in the past decade, including two second-team and three third-team selections. Gonzaga has also had three Academic All-Americans and four Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American selections since 2011 to go with eight total All-West team selections, including Marco Gonzales' 2012 All-West Coast Player of the Year season.

KALMER HITTING TO ALL FIELDS
Brian Kalmer ranks among the Top 10 in the WCC in 10 different offensive categories, cracking the Top 5 in nine:
- No. 1 in RBI (51)
- No. 1 in Walks (36)
- No. 2 in OB+Slugging (1.133)
- No. 2 in Slugging % (.680)
- No. 2 in Home Runs (15)
- No. 3 in Hits (70)
- No. 3 in Doubles (15)
- No. 4 in On-Base % (0.453)
- No. 6 in Runs scored (44)
- No. 6 in Batting Average (.355)

'MADE-FOR-RPI' SCHEDULE
- 13 of GU's 19 opponents in 2023 finished last season in the Top 150 in the NCAA's final RPI ranking, with two of those opponents  — Tennessee and Oregon State — finishing No. 1 and No. 2 in those final rankings before hosting NCAA Regionals. 
- After four games with the Raiders, GU faced Grand Canyon and Ohio State in Phoenix before hosting UC Irvine and heading to Minnesota for multiple games each before entering WCC play.
- Other highlights include a three-game series with 2022 College World Series Runner-Up Oklahoma in Spokane and a two-game midweek matchup with Oregon in Eugene along with one game with Oregon State in Corvallis.
- Zags had a pair of crucial home series back-to-back with BYU (March 30-April 1) and 2022 WCC Tournament Champions and NCAA Regional qualifiers San Diego (April 6-8) coming to Patterson, before two more big ones against first-place LMU and second-place Portland the next weekend on the road.

OWEN WILD, PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
- Gonzaga RHP Owen Wild was named a Preseason Second Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, the outlet announced.
- The honor makes it back-to-back years that a GU pitcher picks up preseason All-America honors from the outlet after Gabriel Hughes did the same in 2022. 
In 2022 Wild finished with a 9-1 record to go with a team-best 3.03 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 16 appearances. Wild's breakout year culminated in an All-Blacksburg Regional Team nod after pitching six shutout innings of relief to help cue a Bulldogs rally in an NCAA Tournament game against Wright State, as well as All-WCC Tournament and All-WCC Honorable Mention honors.
Wild's .900 win percentage in 2022 was the fourth-highest in a single season in program history.