Extra game could give GU an edge
It’s almost like a second chance.
This weekend the Gonzaga University baseball team will travel to Los Angeles to finish the West Coast Conference schedule with a four-game series against Loyola Marymount.
Why four games? The final game of the Bulldogs’ home series with the Lions was rained out, so the makeup game was tacked on to the end of the season. This weekend’s schedule will consist of a single game Friday, a doubleheader Saturday and a final game Sunday.
If the Zags, who have a one-game lead over LMU, win two of the first three games, the fourth won’t have any bearing on the standings, but the WCC decided it had to be played regardless. In that scenario, GU will have won the Coast Division title and the right to host either Pepperdine or San Francisco with the WCC title on the line.
But if the Zags lose two of the first three, the fourth game will be important, with the winner winning the division. In other words, even if GU doesn’t win the series, it still can win. A split is good enough.
“It gives an extra chance to win two,” said GU coach Mark Machtolf. “So it works to our advantage. We have a one-game lead, so if we lose two out of three, normally it would be over. But it’s another one they’ve got to beat us on.
“But then again, to have played that game in Spokane, we had already won the first two, so maybe we would have a two-game lead and would only have to win one.”
Meanwhile, the Waves will be hosting USF for the West Division crown. No matter who wins, they will have to travel to Spokane next weekend, if the Zags outlast Loyola. GU won the tiebreaker by winning two of three from each of the West Division leaders.
The Sasquatch from the Community Colleges of Spokane don’t need a second chance, not after winning their first NWAACC East Division crown since 1995 Sunday.
CCS handily won Saturday’s first game of a scheduled doubleheader with visiting Walla Walla, but the finish of the second game, tied at 2 in the fifth inning, had to be pushed back to Sunday because of the wet weather.
The game remained tight until CCS scored eight runs in its final two at-bats to win going away, 10-3. Luke Farden picked up the win, his seventh, which clinched the division title.
“Talk about drawing out a little bit for some drama,” CCS coach Dave Keller said of winning his first division crown.
By winning the NWAACC’s East Division – CCS had the tiebreaker edge over Treasure Valley, which also finished 18-10 – the Sasquatch are assured a spot in the NWAACC tournament in two weeks. Treasure Valley, Big Bend and Columbia Basin – the other three teams in the double-elimination division tournament at Pasco’s Dust Devil Stadium – are playing for the other spot to the conference tournament and the trio, along with CCS, will be battling for seeding.
If CCS wins the four-team tourney, it will have the No. 1 seed. If the Sasquatch are eliminated early, they still earn the second seed to the conference tournament and the other three will battle for the top seed.
“The big difference on that,” Keller said, “when you match up with the West (Division in the NWAACC tournament) right now, it’s the difference in playing Lower Columbia (34-5 and top-ranked in the NWAACC), obviously a real good club, or playing a Tacoma (22-17) or Centralia (16-23), which are a lot more beatable.
“The other nice thing about this (division tournament) is it gets you an opportunity to slide into tournament play,” Keller added. “It really does gear you up for that playoff atmosphere.”
Around the area
Despite what was printed in Monday’s Spokesman-Review, Washington State still has six Pac-10 games left – not three – as the Cougars try to win a conference game. This weekend’s three-game series at Pullman against UCLA is just the Cougs’ best shot at winning, if records mean anything… . After three games against the Bruins, WSU travels to Arizona State to end its season, and the Sun Devils will be playing for NCAA seeding, having already won 30 games. The Bruins, on the other hand, have won just twice in the Pac-10 under first-year coach John Savage, and only 13 games overall. They won their first Pac-10 road game last Saturday at Stanford. And they are the only Pac-10 team the Cougars have a statistical advantage over. UCLA is hitting only .255 as a team (the Cougs are at .285), the Bruins have hit just 19 home runs despite playing in comfy Jackie Robinson Stadium (WSU has 33, 14 by catcher Brady Everett), and they have scored more than 100 runs less than the Cougs. With pitching is about a wash (UCLA’s team earned run average is 5.82 while WSU’s is 6.19), you can actually say the Cougars are going into a Pac-10 series for the first time this year as a favorite. … Everett has been on a long-ball hot streak, having pounded four home runs in his past seven games, including one at USC’s Dedeaux Field last weekend. The Trojans made sure he wouldn’t hurt them Sunday, walking the senior three times.
The Northwest Conference earned its usual measure of respect from the NCAA when the Division III playoff pairings were announced Sunday. Linfield, which earned the NWC’s automatic berth, will travel to Chapman College in Orange, Calif., and compete in the four-team West Region. Chapman, an independent, is seeded first with its 32-8 record. Linfield (33-7), Texas Lutheran (31-8) and La Verne (30-11) are seeded 2-4… . George Fox, which tied with Linfield for the NWC title at 20-4 but lost two of three to the Wildcats, was denied one of the three at-large berths. George Fox is the defending Division III champion and the Bruins won a school-record 32 games, but it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs.