Pepperdine feasts on Zags in seventh
Gonzaga University squandered numerous opportunities Saturday and, in the process, squandered a chance to clinch a key West Coast Conference baseball series.
Pepperdine made the most of its biggest opportunity, scoring four times in the seventh inning en route to a 7-5 WCC win at Avista Stadium, evening the three-game series at a game apiece.
“It was a huge win for us,” Waves coach Steve Rodriguez said. “It throws us into a situation (today) where, if both of us win our divisions, the game will decide who hosts the championship.”
Pepperdine, with a 12-4 record (26-13 overall) trails San Francisco by a half-game in the West Division. The Zags, whose 11-5 WCC record (24-15 overall) includes two wins over USF, lead San Diego by 2 1/2 games in the Coast Division. Today’s winner will hold the tiebreaker if the teams were to meet in the conference title series, at which an NCAA berth is the reward.
How many opportunities did the Zags squander? Twelve men left on base, nine in scoring position – all in the final seven innings. But the last three may have hurt the most.
In the seventh, trailing 5-3, the Bulldogs had a runner picked off first with the bases loaded and two outs with a 2-0 count on the hitter. In the eighth, down 6-3, they loaded the bases with one out and scored just one on Kiel Thibault’s sacrifice fly. In the ninth, behind 7-4, they had runners on first and third with none out before a run-scoring, double-play grounder killed the final rally.
“We just didn’t play real crisp today, for whatever reason,” GU coach Mark Machtolf said. “We had our opportunities because we battled back when were fell behind, and I’m proud of the guys for that. But when you don’t play well against a good team, that’s a formula for an L.”
Both teams’ left-handed starters – Pepperdine’s Paul Coleman (6-0) and GU’s Patrick Donovan (5-5) – pitched well. But Donovan worked into the seventh, and Coleman threw 95 pitches through six and turned it over to three relievers, which proved to be the difference.
Donovan, who entered the seventh leading 3-1, having yielded just four hits, immediately gave up two hard-hit balls. But because the second one was a two-hop grounder right at shortstop Aaron McGuiness for a double play, there were two outs and the bases empty.
David Uribes lined a single to left, Adrian Ortiz doubled down the right-field line and leading Waves hitter Chad Tracy – son of Los Angeles Dodgers manager Jim Tracy – plated them both with a single to center.
Brandon Harmon, who has been near-perfect in his last four appearances, relieved Donovan. Harmon, who earned Friday’s save, wasn’t as sharp. After intentionally walking cleanup hitter Steve Kleen, Harmon yielded run-scoring singles to Danny Worth and pinch-hitter Luke Salas.
“They have some real good pitchers,” Rodriguez said, “so our guys tried to be aggressive.”
“They were able to bunch their hits together,” Machtolf said, “and we didn’t. That’s baseball.”
GU finished with 11 hits, including three each from leadoff hitter Scott Campbell and No. 9 hitter Matt Hibbitts. Pepperdine had 11 of its 15 hits in the final three innings.
The series comes down to today’s 1 p.m. contest. The Waves will start right-hander Barry Enright (5-1, 4.64). GU will counter with Bobby McEwen (1-2, 6.33), a sophomore right-hander whose lone win came against USF.