SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Another masterful performance from the Gonzaga pitching staff led the Bulldogs to their second-straight West Coast Conference sweep, defeating San Francisco 3-0 on Sunday at Benedetti Diamond.
Gonzaga (14-18, 10-2 WCC) is the winner of seven straight contests and has recorded back-to-back shutout wins for the first time since 2021 (9-0: 4/13 at Washington State and 10-0: 4/16 at Pepperdine). The Zags blanked San Francisco (17-19, 1-8 WCC) 8-0 on Saturday before completing the sweep with a 3-0 shutout in Sunday's finale.
Miles Gosztola (W, 2-2) followed up his impressive performance last Sunday against Santa Clara with 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, allowing just three hits and striking out eight. Gonzaga starting pitchers combined for 20 1/3 shutout innings, allowing just nine total hits while tallying 24 strikeouts this weekend against San Francisco. As a staff, the Zags allowed just one run the entire series, a home run in the ninth inning of game one while striking out 30 Dons batters.
Gonzaga threatened early in the first, loading the bases for
Jace Phelan who ripped a single into left to bring home
Donovan Ratfield. The Dons escaped on the play after throwing out
Tommy Eisenstat at home to end the inning.
Gosztola and USF starter Joe Soberon (L, 2-6) were locked into a pitcher's duel for the remainder of their outings as the score remained 1-0.
Erik Hoffberg relieved Gosztola in the seventh with two outs and a runner aboard but quickly defused the threat on three pitches. The freshman would finish the game to record his team-leading fourth save of the season.
The Zags plated a pair of runs in the ninth when Eisenstat led off with a single and advanced to second on a
Jordan Hamberg sacrifice bunt.
Sam Stem came on as a pinch hitter and promptly singled to center, bringing home Eisenstat to double the Gonzaga lead. Two walks and a
Peyton Miller sacrifice fly later put GU up 3-0 with all the insurance they would need.
With the win, Head Coach
Mark Machtolf becomes just the second coach in conference history to win 300 West Coast Conference games. Long-time University of San Diego coach Rich Hill owns the highest total, with 419. No other active WCC coach has collected more than 100.
UP NEXT
The Zags will stop in Eugene on Tuesday for a midweek matinee at 12:05pm against the 17th-ranked Oregon Ducks. Follow @ZagBaseball on social media for all the latest updates, and check gozags.com for results and streaming information.
