Branson Trube’s home run lifts Gonzaga baseball to 5-4 win over Cal Poly

SURPIRSE, Ariz. – Branson Trube hit a go-ahead home run and Gonzaga rallied from down two runs to defeat Cal Poly 5-4 on Monday, the final day of the Surprise Tournament.

“Today was a good back-and-forth battle with Cal Poly,” Bulldogs coach Mark Machtolf said. “In a game that we weren’t particularly good on offense, our young freshman arms (Keaton) Knueppel, (Mason) Millett, and (Michael) Spellacy all came in and picked us up in their debut outings, as well as solid defense again to wrap up the win.”

GU came from behind to take the lead twice in the game, answering Cal Poly’s offense each time the Mustangs took the lead. Trailing 4-2 in the fifth, the Zags got two in the bottom of the frame and one more in the sixth before shutting down Cal Poly’s offense in the final three innings.

Ernie Yake, Jake Vieth and Austin Pinorini each collected two hits in the game, but the biggest came off the bat of Trube. His homer in the sixth was the first of his Zag career and broke a 4-4 tie, proving to be the game’s winning run.

On the mound, Gonzaga’s bullpen went a combined 6.1 innings, giving up just one run on three hits with four strikeouts. After starter Justin Blatner gave way to Kneuppel in the third, the Zag pitching and defense came through. Kneuppel went 3.0 innings, Millett got the win going 2.1 and Spellacy pitched a clean ninth for the save.

Gonzaga plays at UC Irvine on Friday.