SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga outlasted Portland in their series opener at Patterson Baseball Complex and Coach Steve Hertz Field on Friday by a score of 2-1. Justin Feld and Payton Graham (W, 1-3) combined to allow just one run on eight hits and striking out a dozen Pilot batters.
 
Gonzaga (15-19, 11-2 WCC) leapfrogs Portland (22-13, 8-2 WCC) into first place in the West Coast Conference standings while tying a Patterson Complex record with their ninth straight home win. The previous nine-game win streak at home began on April 20, 2007 and ended nine games later on February 29, 2008.
 
An infield single for Tommy Eisenstat in the bottom of the first inning led to the first Gonzaga run as Vincent Temesvary motored around from second base to slide into home, just beating the tag from Portland catcher Tyler Howard.
 
In his fourth straight series-opening start, Feld worked around a bit of traffic from the Pilots all evening. Across his five and two-thirds innings, Feld stranded at least one runner in each of the first four frames to keep Portland off the board. The Pilots finally struck in the top of the fifth on a two-out single from Ben Patacsil to knot the score at 1-1.
 
Portland finally chased Feld in the sixth inning with two outs after a single from Zach Toglia put the go-ahead run on base. The Zags called on Payton Graham, who made quick work of Jonas Salk with a strikeout to end the threat and close the book on Feld's night.
 
Back-to-back one-out hits from Temesvary and Eisenstat in the bottom of the sixth made way for the go-ahead run to score on Donovan Ratfield's RBI fielder's choice.
 
Portland starter Nick Brink (L, 6-3) lasted seven strong innings before he was lifted in the eighth. Gonzaga made some noise in the frame hoping to add an insurance run but came up empty and entered the ninth clinging to their 2-1 lead.
 
Graham breezed through the ninth on just eight pitches, inducing a lineout, popout, and strikeout to secure Gonzaga's WCC-leading 11th conference win to take over first place. The Kennewick-native earned his first career win after three and a third, allowing just one hit while striking out three.
 
Feld's nine strikeouts notched a career-high, topping his previous high of six that he recorded last week at San Francisco.
 
UP NEXT
Gonzaga will take aim for their third-straight WCC series win on Saturday at 6pm. Follow @ZagBaseball on social media for all the latest updates, and check gozags.com for tickets, results, and streaming information.