SPOKANE, Wash. – Defenders of their home turf. With their 22-7 win over Washington State on Tuesday, Gonzaga improved to 9-1 at home this season and secured their eighth-straight victory at Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field. The Zags put the game out of reach almost immediately, posting 14 runs on nine hits in the first inning.
Gonzaga (11-18) has now won four straight games after sweeping Santa Clara at home last weekend and taking down Washington State (17-14) on Tuesday. The Zags and Cougs will meet one more time this season at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman on April 23.
Hudson Shupe led off the Bulldogs' big first inning with a four-pitch walk. A
Payton Knowles single sent Shupe to second, and a
Vincent Temesvary walk looked to load the bases with nobody out. Instead, on the walk that sent Shupe to third, an errant throw by the Cougar catcher brought home the first run of the game.
Jordan Hamberg stepped up next, smashing a ball over the wall in right-center field for his second three-run home run in as many games.
The Zags weren't even close to finished, as
Max Coupe and
Tommy Eisenstat followed with back-to-back doubles to plate the fifth run, still with nobody out.
Donovan Ratfield singled home Eisenstat to make it 6-0, just seven GU batters into the game.
A
Josh Hankins walk forced Washington State to their bullpen, before
Peyton Miller singled on a bunt to load the bases, completing the first round of the Gonzaga order without an out being recorded. By the time the Cougars completed the second out of the inning, the Zags were already up 10-0.
Eisenstat walked to load the bases for Ratfield, who lifted a high fly ball over the net in left field for a grand slam, his fifth RBI of the inning and 14th and final run for Gonzaga in the 45-minute first inning.
Washington State responded in the third, cutting into the GU lead with six runs on three hits while taking advantage of five walks. A run in the bottom of the third made it 15-6 in favor of Gonzaga.
The Zags struck for six more runs in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded once again, Eisenstat drove in a run with an RBI single before Ratfield picked up RBI number six with a bases loaded walk.
Hankins stepped to the plate and drove a 1-0 fastball out to left center, the second Gonzaga grand slam of the night, extending the GU lead to 21-6.
After entering in the sixth as a pinch hitter,
Kevin Spear picked up his first RBI of the season when he singled to make it 22-7 in the bottom of the eighth. The Cougars would go quietly in the ninth as the three-and-a-half-hour contest came to a close.
Nate DeSchryver (W, 1-1) earned the win for Gonzaga after entering in the third inning to relieve Hamberg. His 3 2/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits and five strikeouts marked his best outing in relief this season.
Garrett Gores,
Matthew Mueller, and
Treyson Peters combined for shutout baseball over the final three frames, allowing just one hit while picking up three strikeouts.
Gonzaga's 22 runs and 19 hits were season highs on Tuesday, with their run total just one shy of the most runs scored in a single game since 2000 (2010 at Utah Valley). Five Bulldog hitters notched multi-hit games, while Hamberg, Ratfield, and Hankins combined to go 8-for-13 with 14 RBIs and eight runs scored.
Knowles continued his hot hitting on Tuesday with a 3-for-4 night, picking up an RBI and three runs scored with two walks. The true freshman is now 11 for his last 16 since game one against Santa Clara last weekend.
UP NEXT
The Zags will hit the road for four games this weekend, traveling to San Francisco beginning on Friday before making a stop at #17 Oregon in Eugene on Tuesday, Apr. 16. Follow @ZagBaseball on social media for all the latest updates, and check gozags.com for results and streaming information.
