PORTLAND, Ore. – In a must-win situation on Saturday, Gonzaga baseball hung on for the 6-4 win over Portland at Joe Etzel Field, securing the No. 2 seed at the West Coast Conference Championships next week and the first-round bye that comes with it.
 
Gonzaga (26-25, 16-8 WCC) finishes above .500 in the regular season for the first time since 2022. The Bulldogs will play at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday in Las Vegas, but their opponent won't be known until late Wednesday evening.
 
Mikey Bell put GU on the board in the first, launching his 11th home run of the season with Hudson Shupe aboard as the Zags took a 2-0 lead over Portland (22-29, 13-11 WCC). The Pilots' Brady Bean responded with a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the inning, and Jonas Salk connected with a solo shot in the third to bring the game to a 2-2 tie.
 
Kai Francis (W, 2-1) relieved starter Gabe Brabec (ND) in the fourth with two runners on and nobody out. A failed squeeze attempt from the Pilots resulted in a double play to clear the bases, and a strikeout ended the threat as GU gained momentum.
 
Tommy Eisenstat put Gonzaga back on top in the sixth with a leadoff solo blast, but the Bulldogs weren't done. Payton Knowles smashed a pinch-hit two-run double later in the inning to make it 5-2.
 
Portland got two back in the sixth with a home run, Francis' only blemish of the afternoon. After the homer, the GU bullpen combined for three and two-thirds innings of shutout baseball, striking out four. Erik Hoffberg (S, 7) earned his seventh save of the season and second in the series, recording the final four outs.
 
Gonzaga picked up an insurance run in the eighth on a Ty Yukumoto RBI single. With his 2-for-5 afternoon, Yukumoto extended his team-leading on-base streak to 28 games. He was the only Zag with multiple hits in the finale, as nine different players recorded knocks.
 
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GU is one of six teams who qualified for the WCC Tournament, behind No. 1 San Diego and ahead of No.3 Saint Mary's, No. 4 LMU, No. 5 Portland, and No. 6 San Francisco. The Bulldogs will face the second-lowest advancing seed on Thursday at 6:05 p.m. on ESPN+.