MORAGA, Calif. – It took just seven pitches for Gonzaga to strike first in their series opener against Saint Mary's at Louis Guisto field on Thursday. The Zags went on to plate four runs in the first inning, which was enough to hang on for the 4-3 win despite a late rally from the Gaels in the final frame.
 
Gonzaga (7-14, 4-0 WCC) opens West Coast Conference play 4-0 for the first time since 2017, when they swept Pacific and took the first two games against San Francisco for a 5-0 start. For Saint Mary's (13-10, 2-2 WCC), they drop to 2-2 in WCC play after opening their conference slate with a series win at San Diego last weekend.
 
Hudson Shupe immediately extended his hit streak to 15 games with a leadoff double in the top of the first to get things going early. His hit streak dates back to last season at Seattle U, where he ended the season with hits in ten straight games.
 
Max Coupe followed Shupe's double with a single through the right side to put runners on the corners with nobody out before Tommy Eisenstat reached on an error to bring home the first run of the game.
 
Vincent Temesvary continued his hot hitting to the opposite field, plating Coupe with an RBI double to right-center, and Jordan Hamberg followed with an RBI single to plate Eisenstat before the first out was finally recorded on Donovan Ratfield's RBI groundout, Gonzaga already leading 4-0.
 
Justin Feld (W, 2-1) started on the mound for the Zags, working seven strong innings while scattering five hits and striking out four. His only blunder came in the sixth when Ryan Pierce touched up for his fifth home run of the season, the only extra base hit allowed by Feld all game.
 
Erik Hoffberg (S, 1) earned his first save of the season after entering in the ninth to record the final two outs after Saint Mary's rallied for two runs off of Daniel Sotelo, who entered in the eighth inning to relieve Feld.
 
UP NEXT
The Zags look to match their best start in West Coast Conference play under Mark Machtolf in game two on Friday at 3pm. Follow @ZagBaseball on social media for all the latest updates, and check gozags.com for results and streaming information.