Gonzaga drops WCC series for first time this season | College baseball roundup

May 3-Gonzaga was coming off a record-breaking weekend and surging into the national postseason picture, but the Bulldogs took a step back this past week, dropping three games.

The Zags' program-record 14-game winning streak ended Tuesday with a 4-3 loss at 13th-ranked Oregon. Then GU absorbed its first West Coast Conference series defeat of the season, losing two of three against visiting Santa Clara, the second-to-last team in the conference standings.

The Bulldogs fell 5-3 in the series opener Friday, then rallied for a 7-6 win Saturday before closing the WCC set with a 12-4 dud Sunday at Patterson Baseball Complex.

Gonzaga (28-17, 16-5) has a three-game lead atop the WCC standings with two conference series remaining. The team hosts nonconference rival Washington State at 4 p.m. Monday before heading to second-place San Francisco (22-23, 13-8) for a three-game WCC series next weekend.

In Sunday's finale, Santa Clara (18-28, 7-14) amassed 19 hits - the most allowed by GU in a game this season, and tied for the most hits the Zags have given up at home since 2013. The Broncos tallied five doubles and a homer, getting at least five hits and three runs off each of GU's three pitchers: Finbar O'Brien (3-2), Joe Thornton and Erik Hoffberg. The Zags were held to five singles and a two-run homer from Ryder Young.

The Zags recorded 14 hits and got a sparkling relief effort from freshman Landon Hood in Saturday's win. Hood earned his fourth save, striking out all seven batters he faced for a perfect 2 1/3 innings of work. Hood's team-best ERA now stands at 2.75.

GU built a 4-0 lead in the first inning on Noah Meffert's three-run homer, then fell behind 5-4 in the second, but the Zag pitchers settled in and Young tied it with a solo homer in the fifth before Mikey Bell's go-ahead RBI single in the sixth, which proved to be the winner.

GU starter Karsten Sweum fanned eight batters but allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits over five innings.

In the series opener, GU struggled to string together baserunners and the team fell into a 5-1 hole in the sixth inning. Young and Jacob Wrubleski hit solo homers to trim the deficit, but those were GU's only two hits over the final four innings. Zag starter Justin Feld (6-1, 4.80 ERA) took his first loss of the year, allowing five runs on seven hits and four walks with four strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.

Young, a junior college transfer outfielder, had a homer in every game this weekend and tallied five RBIs in the series, boosting his team-high totals to 12 homers and 49 RBIs for the season.

Reigning WCC Player of the Year Mikey Bell, the Zags' third baseman, extended his hitting streak to 16 games, going 7-for-12 against the Broncos. Bell is second on the team with a .361 batting average and leads the Zags with 20 doubles.

Star designated hitter Maddox Haley, who on April 24 broke the program record for most consecutive games with a hit, went 0-for-13 in four games this past week after tallying a hit in the previous 29 games. The junior still leads the team with a .381 batting average.

Cougs can't finish sweep

Washington State cruised to wins in the first two games of a home series against the Mountain West Conference's last-place team, but the Cougars couldn't complete the sweep and dropped a spot in the conference standings, falling 5-4 to Fresno State on Sunday at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman.

With one MWC series remaining, the Cougs (25-22, 13-8 MWC) sit third in the conference standings, one game back of second-place Air Force, which will host WSU for a three-game set next weekend. WSU entered Sunday's finale at second place in the MWC, but surrendered a ninth-inning run and gave the Bulldogs their second conference win of the season.

Designated hitter Matt Priest's two-run double in the fifth inning put WSU up 3-2 on Sunday, but the Bulldogs (13-31-1, 2-15-1) responded with two runs in the seventh. The Cougs tied it on Ryan Skjonsby's RBI flyout in the eighth, then Fresno State's Mikey Pickett drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the ninth. WSU's Mason Pirello hit a one-out double in the bottom half, but the next two Cougs batters went down.

Starter Luke Meyers gave WSU a solid effort, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks with five strikeouts over five innings. But two Cougar relievers combined to surrender three runs on seven hits.

Sunday's finale was a letdown after WSU dominated the Bulldogs in Game 2 on Saturday night, piling up 17 hits and allowing three over seven innings in a 17-0 run-rule rout. Starter Griffin Smith (4-4, 5.51 ERA) struck out five over six three-hit innings.

Ace Nick Lewis (7-2, 3.50 ERA) tossed a five-hit complete game in Friday's 5-1 win, punching out five. Senior outfielder Max Hartman hit an RBI triple in the first inning, setting the program's single-season record with his eighth triple of the year.

Hartman, who's batting .321 with 10 doubles and five homers on the year, has been consistent as of late. He's tallied nine hits over the last four games - as has Priest, a redshirt freshman USC transfer who boosted his average to a team-best .365 with a 6-for-12, five-RBI weekend.

Pirates close with sweep

Whitworth, which clinched the Northwest Conference regular-season title the week prior, is stocked with momentum heading into the NWC tournament, which is scheduled to begin Friday in Spokane.

The Pirates won 10 of their final 11 games to claim the NWC crown by five games. They capped the regular season with a three-game NWC sweep of visiting Whitman at Merkel Field, winning 7-5 and 12-5 in Saturday's doubleheader, then breezing past the Blues 10-2 on Sunday.

Mt. Spokane product Carson Coffield and Dominic Giusti both hit two-run homers in the finale for Whitworth (26-14, 20-4), which built a 5-0 lead after three innings. Starter Nathaniel Kurano (6-3) gave up one run on seven hits with four strikeouts over five innings.

In the series opener, reigning NWC MVP Kyle Memarian was a single short of hitting for the cycle. His solo homer in the fourth put the Pirates up 7-3 and two Whitworth relievers combined for three scoreless innings to close out the win. Starter Dillon Hartman improved to a team-best 8-1, surrendering three runs on four hits with two strikeouts in five innings.

Memarian launched a solo homer to lead off Game 2 and hit a three-run blast in the second inningas the Pirates went up 9-2 early. Memarian went 14-for-24 over the last six games of the season with 11 RBIs, five homers, four doubles and two triples. The outfielder from Vancouver, Washington, topped the team this year with a .396 average, a 1.175 OPS, 57 runs and 11 doubles.

West Valley High grad Spencer Shipman hit a team-leading 10 homers this season and batted .321. Coffield hit .328 with a team-high 42 RBIs. WV product Caleb Gray totaled 11 doubles and eight homers.

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