Gonzaga baseball ranked second in West Coast Conference preseason poll

Fresh off a league championship and NCAA Regionals berth, the Gonzaga baseball team was voted one of the best in the league by the West Coast Conference’s 10 head coaches.

The Bulldogs, who finished 2016 with a share of the WCC regular season title, were picked to finish second in 2017, earning 73 points and three first-place votes. They finished just four points behind projected first-place squad San Diego, who picked up five first-place tallies. Pepperdine was third, garnering two first-place votes and 63 points.

Fellow 2016 co-champions BYU and Saint Mary’s rounded out the top five.

Additionally, three Zags earned spots on the All-WCC Preseason team, tying for most in the league. Senior infielder Jeff Bohling – the reigning WCC Player of the Year – and junior outfielder Tyler Frost join junior right-hander Eli Morgan on the squad. In WCC play last season, Bohling posted a .319 batting average and .647 slugging percentage, finishing among the top five in hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples, and total bases. Frost, meanwhile, was 10th with a .342 batting average and 22 RBIs in WCC action, and Morgan went undefeated at 8-0 with a 1.14 ERA against WCC foes.

This is the first time since the league started honoring Preseason teams in 2009 that three different Bulldogs received accolades. In 2013, the Zags were honored three times, but Marco Gonzales was voted preseason All-WCC both as a fielder and a pitcher. Clayton Eslick joined him on the squad.

Gonzaga begins the 2017 slate on Friday, Feb. 17, against Indiana in Surprise, Arizona. The Zags will also play Duke, Oregon State, and the Hoosiers once more as part of the Sanderson Ford Collegiate Baseball Classic at Surprise Stadium.