Bulldogs find coming home just the ticket
When you play your first two dozen games away from home, even a Spokane spring is welcome.
Such has been the case for the Gonzaga baseball team.
After the above-mentioned road rally (the Zags were 14-10 in the stretch), GU has returned to Avista Stadium for its last six games. The result: a 6-0 home record, including last weekend’s three-game, West Coast Conference season-opening sweep of Portland.
“To open with two series at home is huge,” coach Mark Machtolf said. “It’s nice not only to open up at home, it’s just nice to be home when you play your first 24 games on the road.”
The Zags (20-10 overall) host a three-game set with Santa Clara (17-13, 1-2) starting Friday, hoping for an easier time than last weekend, with its three one-run wins.
“Your team learns how to win close games, which is always good, because that’s what you’re going to have to do to win the league,” Machtolf said. “By the same token, there were things we could have done, little execution type of things, that could have separated us a little bit.”
The Zags have built their record on an offense that features six regulars hitting better than .300 (paced by Scott Campbell’s .418 average) and a pitching staff that’s exhibited quality depth.
“They’ve been pretty consistent,” Machtolf said of the hitters. “I think, though, as we get into league, we get a step up in competition. Although we’ve played some good teams, day in and day out in our league you see real quality pitching. We still have some work to do.”
Around the area
WSU: If the Cougars’ weekend series with 12th-ranked Arizona State shows anything, it shows they have raised their competitiveness to a Pac-10 level. And that freshman Jared Prince is the real deal, especially on the mound.
The Cougars (21-9 going into Tuesday non-conference game with GU, 3-3 in Pac-10 play) did lose 2 of 3, but were not that far away from a sweep. The series finale was the type of Pac-10 game WSU hasn’t played in a few years. The Sun Devils (23-9, 2-1) won 2-1 in a pitchers’ duel that took less than 3 hours, featured 21 strikeouts, only four walks and errorless defense.
Prince, who is hitting .429, was 3 for 9 in the series, but shined on the mound. The freshman pitched the lone Cougar victory, going six innings, yielding a run on four hits while raising his record to 4-0.
Jay Miller had three hits over the weekend to move into second on the Cougars’ career hits list with 274.
The Cougars travel to UCLA for a weekend series with the Bruins (16-13, 1-2) starting Friday at 6 p.m.
Whitworth: When the Pirates (8-4 in the Northwest Conference) travel to Willamette for a three-game series this weekend, they enter in fourth place – with a decent chance to finish first.
The Whits (14-12 going into Tuesday) have already played the three teams above them in the standings (George Fox, Pacific and Linfield), winning two of three from all but George Fox. Their remaining NWC games are against Willamette (8-10 in league), Lewis & Clark (3-12), Puget Sound (6-6) and Pacific Lutheran (6-6).
CC Spokane: The Sasquatch opened NWAACC play last week by splitting four games, losing a doubleheader to Columbia Basin and sweeping Wenatchee.
Today CCS (7-13, 2-2) hosts Blue Mountain (7-17, 1-3) in a 1 p.m. doubleheader followed by a Saturday trip to Moses Lake to face Big Bend (13-6, 3-1).