Gonzaga Hammers WSU

College baseball

For a college baseball coach with a young team, there is only one certainty. His young players will get older.

If he’s lucky, they will get better, too. And tougher - both physically and mentally., Steve Hertz can consider himself among the lucky, because his rapidly maturing Gonzaga team won a game at August/A.R.T Stadium Wednesday that it probably would have lost last season.

The Bulldogs, after spotting Washington State a 5-0 first-inning lead, kept their cool long enough for their bats to heat up and battled back to hammer the pitching-poor Cougars 15-10.

Jason Uberuaga and Donnie Murrell each drove in four runs and outfielder Brendan Hare smashed a pair of doubles and drove in three as GU (12-12-1) beat the Cougars (2-23) and successfully opened its home schedule after 24 straight road games.

The Bulldogs, 2-2 in the West Coast Conference, must now prepare for Friday’s 2 p.m. opener of a critical four-game home series against WCC leader Pepperdine (19-16, 7-1). They will have to do it without senior rightfielder Rob Pearsall, who was hitting .391 before suffering a season-ending knee injury at Loyola Marymount last weekend.

GU didn’t seem to miss Pearsall Wednesday as Uberuaga drilled his third home run of the season, a two-run shot in the fourth inning, to ignite a methodical comeback highlighted by an eight-run seventh.

“This is a game that we probably don’t come back in a year ago,” Hertz admitted. “Last year when somebody jumped on us early like they did today, we’d panic and lose our composure.

“(WSU) came out and banged a couple of balls in that first inning, but we stayed patient, kept playing hard, didn’t panic and chipped away and got back in it.”

GU also got some splendid middle-inning relief work from Charlie Zimmerman, winner Jason Sazama (2-0) and Brian Newton, who held WSU to just one run and four hits from the second through eighth inning.

That gave the Bulldogs time to regroup following the Cougars’ first-inning outburst that included a two-run homer from Duane Stewart, his sixth, and a three-run blast from Greg Mitchell, his first.

WSU coach Steve Farrington brought along only five pitchers - even though none of 11 on his staff has had much luck getting people out this spring. The Cougars got three shutout innings from starter Les McTavish. Their four relievers were torched for 16 hits and all 15 runs.

“It’s a funny game when your pitcher’s not the dominant guy - a lot of things can happen,” Farrington said after watching his freshman-laden team lose its ninth straight heading into Friday’s Pacific-10 Conference opener at Oregon State.

Gonzaga 15, WSU 10

WSU 500 000 104 10 15 1

Gonzaga 000 232 80x 15 17 0

McTavish, Pappas (4), Meldahl (5), Rice (6), Schneider (7) and Smith, Hairston (8). Stoppa, Zimmerman (3), Sazama (6), Newton (7), Siwek (8) and Asan, Canny (8). HITS: WSU - Randall, Hattenburg 3, Stewart, Bode, Mentink 2, Robinson 2, Mitchell 2, Vigeland 2, Smith. GU - Bowne, Prince, Murrell 2, Hare 3, Wulf 2, Doolittle, Uberuaga 3, Workman, Asan, Davis, Hunt. 2B - Hattenburg 2, Vigeland, Asan, Hare 2, Murrell 2, Uberuaga, Wulf. HR - Mitchell (1), Stewart (5), Uberuaga (3). T - 3:22. A - 265.

Whitworth 12-3, CWU 3-4

Tim Bishop and Jason Francek homered to back Jason McDougal (3-3) as the visiting Pirates (6-13) beat the Wildcats (16-9) in the opener at Ellensburg.

CWU won the nightcap as Lee Blechschmidt (3-0) pitched a three-hitter and retired the final 11 batters after Sam Chimienti’s homer in the fourth.

Whitworth 051 051 0 - 12 12 1

CWU 000 000 3 - 3 4 2

McDougal, Rider (5), Koder (6), Ayers (7) and Schuerman; Lael, Gillaspy (3), Asbornsen (5) and Mathews. W-McDougal (3-3). L-Lael (2-2).

HITS: Whitworth - Saldin 4, Wendt, Bishop 2, Ripke 2, Francek, Swan, Andrews. Central Washington - Cobb 2, Moore, Turner. 2B-Saldin. 3B-Ripke. HR-Bishop (5), Francek (1), Cobb (2).

Whitworth 001 200 0 - 3 3 2

CWU 000 103 x - 4 3 1

Fleming, Tracy (5), Koder (6), Ayers (6) and Chimienti; Blechschmidt and Mathews. W-Blechschmidt (3-0). L-Koder (0-2).

HITS: Whitworth - Wendt, Bishop, Chimienti. Central Washington - Silverton 2, Wise. 2B-Silverton. 3B-Wendt, Bishop. HR-Chimienti (3), Wise (1).

, DataTimes