SAN FRANCISCO- Karsten Sweum threw the sixth recorded no-hitter in Gonzaga history on Saturday, leading the Zags to a victory to clinch a share of the WCC Regular Season Championship.
Sweum struck out 15 batters, tying for the second most strikeouts by a Gonzaga pitcher in program history. He allowed just two walks while keeping San Francisco hitless for the entirety of a run-rule shortened game. Gonzaga ended the game early in the seventh inning thanks to a 13-0 scoreline. Sweum is only the second Gonzaga player to throw a no hitter in the past three decades, joining current Padres pitcher Alek Jacob in the GU history books with today's performance.
Sweum struck out 11 of 12 batters he faced in a perfect stretch in the third through sixth innings. Sweum finished the night on just 93 pitches, throwing 63 for a strike on an incredibly efficient performance to secure the Zags the WCC Regular Season Championship. Sweum now has 99 strikeouts on the season, the most of any pitcher in the conference.
Gonzaga secured a share of the WCC regular season title with today's win, building a four game lead over every team with over a week left in the regular season. Gonzaga has secured tiebreakers over every other team currently in the WCC Tournament field, giving the Zags the one seed when the tournament begins in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 20th.
The Zags did their scoring damage early to give Sweum the lead, scoring twelve runs in the first two innings. Gonzaga had fifteen hits today, with Mikey Bell leading the offense with four hits. Bell was one of three Zags with three RBIs, joining Noah Meffert and Maddox Haley in the scoring parade. Gonzaga scored four runs in the first inning, with the highlight being Meffert's home run to left field. GU broke the scoring open when they added another eight runs in the second inning. Gonzaga had fourteen batters in the inning, with a run of seven straight hits scoring the plethora of runs.
Gonzaga has now shut out San Francisco in both games at USF this weekend, leading the series by a score of 20-0. Gonzaga has shut out the Dons in each of the last four games played in San Francisco and won each of the past 12 meetings with San Francisco. GU will look to keep the streak going when they play a series finale against USF at 1 pm on Sunday.
