SCOTTSDALE, Ariz- Gonzaga Baseball (35-19) finished their last ever WCC conference on Friday, dropping out of the conference tournament after a 6-5 loss to San Francisco (26-29).
Although the Zags rallied late in the one run ballgame, they were unable to overcome San Francisco scoring five runs in the first inning. San Francisco had two walks and four hits in the first inning to jump out to the big lead.
The Zags responded with three runs in the top of the second, using a run of six straight batters reaching base safely with two outs to mount a rally to cut into the lead. Hudson Shupe scored a run on a single by Tommy Eisenstat. Eisenstat and Jacob Wrubleski then scored on a single by Ricky Sanchez. San Francisco scored another run in the bottom of the second inning, their final run of the day. The Zags had two more runs in the third inning, plating runs on back to back hits from Wrubleski and Eisenstat.
Landon Hood was fantastic in relief for Gonzaga, throwing 6.2 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts. He allowed just five baserunners across twenty seven batters faced. Hood, the WCC Freshman of the Year, finished the year with a team best 2.48 ERA.
Gonzaga concluded the regular season with a 35-19 record and a 22-5 regular season WCC record. The Zags had a great regular season at the plate, hitting 63 home runs, the most in a GU season since 2002. The Bulldogs put up a .312 team average, the best GU batting average since 2008 and the eighteenth best batting average in Division 1 baseball. Gonzaga also recently set a new program record for doubles in a single season, finishing the year with 137, the current eighth most in collegiate baseball. Gonzaga Baseball will join the PAC-12 next season, concluding a thirty year run of playing baseball in the WCC.
